


When Worlds Collide

by katyastevens, warlock_female



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Crack, Crack and Angst, Cross-universe, Destroy Ending, Explicit Language, F/M, Fluff and Crack, Pregnancy, Two Shepards, post-ME3
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-28
Updated: 2014-08-22
Packaged: 2018-01-14 02:04:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 41,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1248607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katyastevens/pseuds/katyastevens, https://archiveofourown.org/users/warlock_female/pseuds/warlock_female
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ishtar Shepard, Earthborn and Sole Survivor gets catapulted into an alternate universe. Here, the hero of the Reaper War is Allison Shepard, a Spacer and a famed War Hero for her actions on Elysium. With only Garrus from her universe to back her up, Ishtar finds herself needing to cooperate with the Shepard of this universe to get back to hers where the Reaper War is still ongoing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> This is a cracky semi-crossover fic that came about because my friend and I had discussions on what would happen if our two Shepards met. A plotbunny bit me and this fic was the result.
> 
> Rated M because my friend's Shepard likes to drop cluster-F bomb (my Shepard is a slouch compared to her). Also, while it semi-follows my post-ME3 canon, it's not 100% conforming.

Chapter One:

 

Ishtar backed up slightly, looking around at the scene in front of her and frowned. The Citadel. She was on the god-damned Citadel. _How?_ It had been shot up and looked like shit the last time she saw it, and that was only a few months ago. Here, it was all sparkly and shiny and shit.

She scowled as she looked around. This didn’t fit right. It was the Presidium, that she knew. There was none of the signs of destruction she had seen, none of the remnants of Cerberus’ coup.

Shit. This wasn’t making sense.

She pushed away from the wall she’d been standing against, feet moving quickly and eyes darting everywhere. Analysing, categorising, checking for threats and calculating escape paths. While she might have known the Presidium, these changes unnerved her.

She looked across the water, seeing the familiar krogan statue and the miniature mass relay, long since dormant. Her eyes tracked across, ticking off the familiar sights.

And paused on the one unfamiliar sight: a statue of a human. Smaller than that of the krogan, it was still exceedingly visible, gleaming in the artificial sun. Ishtar took off at a trot, slowing down only when she drew near.

Her clothing drew some attention -- the N7 logo and stripe always would -- but served as more to allow her closer access to the statue than anything else. As the crowd parted, she was able to see text written on the small podium.

_In reverence and remembrance of those who lost their lives in the Reaper War of 2186-2187._

_Lieutenant Commander Allison Shepard._

_What the fuck? No, no, this is all fucking_ wrong!

Further text etched on the podium offered no more clues, but a look up at the statue itself did. The eyes on the person were narrower than hers, nose and lips narrower.

None of this made any fucking sense.

 

[ - ]

 

Allison brushed some of her hair behind her ear, sighing softly to herself as she looked out at the statue of herself. No matter the time of the Citadel, there was always a crowd surrounding it, and if _she_ was anywhere near it...well, the odds were good she’d get waylaid for anything from fifteen minutes to a couple of hours depending on how many people wanted to talk to her, get her autograph, get pictures with her...

Her face was seriously all too well known.

“Did you want to find another way around?” Kaidan asked, his hand gripping hers a little tighter, and she shook her head.

“No, I’m...” Allison sighed again. “I’m tired but I’ll deal with it.” She rubbed her free hand over her slightly protruding stomach, glad that most of her clothing still fit. Those that didn’t...well, Kaidan hadn’t complained too much when she’d slipped on his jacket earlier in the day.

Kaidan moved to a stop, pulling Allison back a little with the hand that was still holding hers. She closed her eyes for a second before turning around and facing him.

“Allison, you’re not even four months’ pregnant and it’s already wearing you down. Come on, if you need to take a different route back to our apartment, just say.”

Allison shook her head. “Stop babying me, Kaidan. I’ll be fine.”

Kaidan shook his head slowly and stepped forwards, dropping Allison’s hand. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. “I think it’s my job to worry about my _wife_ and our _child_.” He moved back slightly, allowing Allison to see his smile.

Allison smiled herself, pulling back more until Kaidan dropped his arms. His hand found hers again and the two continued off at a slow, casual pace.

They brushed past the statue, Allison rolling her eyes slightly as they did so, being careful to keep her opinion away from the view of the people there. One of the people in the crowd broke off and moved towards the two of them, purposefully but seemingly unhurried. She had medium-hued skin and short cropped black hair, looking to be around the same age as Allison.

“Seems like someone’s a big fan,” Kaidan said with a grin. The woman had on a black hoodie with the N7 logo and red stripe down the right arm. A replica, no doubt -- there’d been a rush of those after the end of the Reaper War.

“Hey there,” Allison said, plastering a smile on her face. “What do you want me to sign?”

The woman stepped forwards again, an arm shooting out and grabbing Allison’s elbow. In a split-second they were face to face, the woman scowling.

“What the fuck is going on here?”

The woman stilled, face frozen in the scowl. Allison glanced over to see Kaidan flickering with the last vestiges of a corona, in the last position of his mnemonic. She stepped back, pulling her arm out of the other woman’s grip.

“How long can you hold her?” She tried to calm her racing heart, hand still pressed protectively against her stomach. The nearby crowds had encircled the three of them, faces scared and confused.

“More than long enough.” Kaidan said, still holding his pose. He shifted so that he was standing tall as opposed to having a wide stance, but still kept an arm held out towards the woman.

Allison activated her omni-tool, clicking through her contacts. “Garrus? It’s Shepard. Yeah, we’ve got a small situation here. No, nothing major, just...” Allison broke off, looking at the woman again. “Well, we’re not quite sure.”

 

[ - ]

 

Ishtar tried to break out of the hold the man had on her, but to no avail. She could still hear and see perfectly fine, noting the crowd closing in around her, offering no good escape plan. Her eyes snapped back to the woman as she spoke Garrus’ name -- but her flicker of hope faded with the next two words out of the woman’s mouth.

 _It’s Shepard_.

Fuck no, _she_ was Shepard. Whoever this imposter was, whatever she’d done...it was _not_ going to continue.

Ishtar flicked from the woman to the statue. Yeah, that was her all right. Prim and proper with her own fucking statue commemorating her efforts. Fucking hell, how had she managed that?

The fake-Shepard and the man kept their eyes focused on her, even after the crowd dispersed. Fake-Shepard said something about no autographs today, but to come back tomorrow and she guaranteed she’d do a session. When one young boy said he was flying out of the Citadel that day, fake-Shepard relented and signed the hoodie he had on. That set up a crowd and clamour for fake-Shepard to sign things for everyone else, and she was still doing so when a C-Sec crew turned up.

“Hey, Shepard. Heard there was a bit of a ruckus here.” Ishtar’s eyes widened and she tried to look over her shoulder where Garrus’ voice had come from. The stasis was still holding, preventing her from moving, looking, seeing...

Fake-Shepard stepped forwards, still keeping her gaze focused on Ishtar. “Yeah. Kaidan overreacted.”

 _Kaidan?_ Ishtar looked over at the man. His features all clicked into place and she recognised him -- he was older, broader, with some just-visible grey hairs. _The fuck? How’d mister ‘oh if you’re not interested in me, you must be into girls’ get here?_

“Overreacted?” Kaidan sounded indignant. “I’m sorry, Allison. Shall we count how many times you almost lost me and see how much you overreact when a complete stranger dashes towards you and grabs you.”

Fake-Shepard -- Allison -- sighed and rubbed a hand across her forehead. “I called you over because I thought it’d be better to get C-Sec involved and sort this out diplomatically.”

“So...” Garrus said, still standing behind Ishtar. “What are you expecting me to charge her with?”

“Assault.”

“ _Kaidan!_ ”

“ _Allison_ ,” Kaidan said in the same tone of voice. “No. She’s stupid, trying to attack you in a place like this, but I’m not going to let her get away.”

Allison glared at him, folding her arms across her chest. “I’m sitting in on the interview.”

“No.”

“Wasn’t a debate. I am sitting in and figuring out what she wanted.”

“Allison.”

“Kaidan.”

“No.”

“Garrus.”

“I’m not getting in the middle of this.”

 _Wise._ If Ishtar could have done, she would have snickered. A few seconds later the stasis faded, but before she could do anything more than reassert herself she heard the click of metal on metal and felt her wrists being bound together. Turian claws moved across her hands and she looked over her shoulder.

“Garrus, it’s me, Shepard.” She paused, trying to find a flicker of recognition in his eyes. “Ishtar.”

Garrus didn’t pay any attention to what she was saying, checking her restraints were tight before ordering her to be taken to C-Sec.

 

[ - ]

 

Allison rested her hands on her elbows, looking in through the one-way glass. Her bribery with Garrus had gotten her into the observation room, and she stood there in a black tank top, Kaidan’s jacket flung unceremoniously onto one of the nearby chairs. She’d been standing almost from the moment the woman had been brought in, and despite repeated attempts by one of the officers to get her to sit down, she’d refused.

Allison tracked over the other woman’s face. She didn’t even look remotely familiar, and that was what concerned Allison. The woman had given her name as Ishtar Shepard, but no records had appeared of anyone human with that name. Even her giving her date of birth was no help, although Allison’s eyes narrowed when Ishtar spoke it out from memory -- _eleventh of April, twenty-one fifty-four._

Allison tapped the toes of one of her boots against the floor, drawing the attention of the C-Sec officer in the room yet again. Young and fresh-faced, he was both likely a new graduate from the Academy, as well as a little star-struck. Why he had been given the role of watching over he she didn’t know, but given that he had stayed silent and mostly still, she hadn’t cared.

Allison frowned as the officer in the interrogation room asked another question, and Ishtar replied without fault.

“Alliance Military, Marine division. Council Spectre. N7 qualified.”

 _Bullshit_. That was copying Allison’s own life. Had someone really been delusional enough to pretend that they could be her? With a different name and different appearance?

“Personal history.”

“Born and raised on Earth. Joined the Alliance at eighteen. Lost my entire unit at Akuze.”

More bullshit. Toombs was still alive and he could be brought in to confirm that _he_ was the sole survivor of that massacre. There had been fifty people on Akuze at the attack, the dog tags of forty-nine people collected, the fiftieth -- Toombs -- presumed KIA. She was a spacer, one who’d faced down batarian and pirate forces on Elysium.

Allison slammed her hands down on the desk in front of her, leaning towards the mirror with a grimace. No, this facade was going on for long enough; she was going to figure out what was going on.

 

[ - ]

 

Ishtar looked up as Allison stormed into the room, not even breaking her pace to yell out, “Spectre business,” over her shoulder. The officer who had been interrogating Ishtar backed up quickly, moving to the open doorway.

In one swift movement, Allison had wrapped her hand around Ishtar’s neck, lifted her up, and slammed her against the wall.

“I don’t know what your little fucking game is, here. but it _ends now_.”

“Game?” Ishtar clawed at Allison’s hand, glaring down at the other woman. “I’m not the one playing a fucking game here.”

Ishtar moved through the air, her back slamming against the metal table.

“Let me start,” Allison said. “Major Shepard. Alliance Marine, N7 qualified. First human Spectre. You? Are not me. You don’t even _look_ like me.”

Major. Ishtar bit off a laugh. Oh, that explained the whole calling C-Sec for help. Too long behind a desk and people forgot how to fight.

The pressure on Ishtar reduced for a split second; Ishtar lashed out with a foot, catching Allison in the stomach. Allison’s eyes went wide, her hand moving from Ishtar’s neck to her stomach. Ishtar had a momentary thought, a consideration that she hadn’t hit her _that_ hard, but she was off running out of the room before she could ponder the logic of it, cloaking herself.

Ishtar made it halfway down the hallway, her cloak disappearing, before she felt herself being biotically lifted, then slammed down onto the floor, hard. It happened a second time, then a third. Someone pounced on her, grabbing her wrists, and forced her down onto the floor. She managed to look behind her to see Allison with a mask of rage on her face, one hand still curled around her stomach.

“Ma’am, you okay?”

Allison breathed heavily a couple of times before she responded. “Fuck. Fuck it. Fucking hell.” She breathed a couple more times. “Call Kaidan. And Doctor Salant. Fuck, he’s gonna kill me if anything’s happened to the baby.”

 _Baby? Aww, shit._ Ishtar could just about see the bulge in Allison’s stomach, her mind supplying the information now that she knew.

 

[ - ]

 

Allison refused to look the doctor in the eyes as he ran over a myriad of tests. Thankfully, Kaidan was more than willing to follow every movement and gesture Doctor Salant did. Allison was sitting astride a bed, Kaidan standing beside her and gripping her hand tightly. They were in one of the check-up rooms at Huerta, one that Allison was sure she had been in only a week ago for yet another check-up. One small consideration for her high-risk pregnancy meant that she had almost a direct line to Doctor Salant in the event of any incidents or concerns. They had been exceedingly lucky that Salant had been available, but Allison suspected more than not that Allison was one of Salant's few patients, if not _only_.

“Please lay down and lift up your top.”

Allison did as Salant asked, letting go of Kaidan’s hand as she moved. As soon as she was settled, however, Kaidan’s hand was right back holding hers. Salant moved the ultrasound wand over Allison’s stomach, watching the picture on the screen nearby. Despite all the technical advances, ultrasounds were still the best and safest way to track pregnancies.

Kaidan heaved a sigh of relief as a fast, thumping sound filled the room, and Allison allowed a small smile of her own. Salant kept quiet as he continued the scan, checking for various things Allison didn’t currently care for. The baby was still okay, and that was all that mattered at that point in time.

Salant finished the ultrasound, handing Allison a paper towel to wipe away the gel with while he turned away. She did so, readjusting her top over her stomach.

"Your results from your last check-up all arrived yesterday and I was making plans to pass them through." Salant turned back, his omni-tool active and scanning through some information. "Everything is progressing as normal, nothing of concern, DNA checks have returned..." he paused, looking up at Allison and Kaidan. “Would you like to know whether it’s a boy or a girl?"

Kaidan looked over to Allison.

“Not that it matters, but yes. We’d like to know.” Allison squeezed Kaidan’s hand and looked up at him. “Do we still have that bet running?”

Kaidan chuckled. “It’s all over the _Normandy_. Although we’d have to make sure the bets aren’t completed until this one’s actually here.”

Salant smiled. “It looks like you’re having a little girl.”

Kaidan cracked a wide grin. “And I bet she’s going to be a real badass like her mother and grandmother.” He leaned forward to give Allison a quick kiss.

“What can I say? We Shepards breed our girls badass.”

“Yeah, just...” Kaidan sighed. “There’s a reason you were put on maternity leave as soon as we found out you were pregnant, remember. Just...try not to get caught up in any more adventure until _after_ the baby is born.”

 

[ - ]

 

Garrus looked around at Apollo’s. This was certainly not where he had been heading to, and the view was not what he expected. The Citadel gleamed brilliantly, birds fluttering overhead and people meandering around, just enjoying things how they were.

Apollo’s was packed with people, a heaving mess and with nary a free table to be seen. Garrus stepped away, resting against the balcony, eyes flicking across to differing people as they wandered in and out of view. Faint voices drifted on the light breeze, offering Garrus snippets of conversation; all light-hearted, everyday things.

“Shepard. Glad to see you’re taking time out of your superhero schedule to come visit.”

Garrus turned, identifying the person who’d spoke -- Aethyta. As he looked down, he saw the person she was talking to, someone who was _not_ the Shepard he knew. She had her hand hooked through a human’s arm, and although her back was to him he could see the hair was the wrong colour.

“How’s the mini Spectre doing?”

A laugh filtered through. “Oh, doing fine. She’s been keeping quiet a lot though.”

Aethyta nodded briefly before her mind caught up with what had just been said, and a grin appeared on her face. “Liara’s going to be put out at losing the bet.”

“We’re not confirming it. Not _yet_ , anyway.” The man turned, his quarter profile visible to Garrus. Kaidan Alenko. “But the doc said it looks like we’ll be having a girl.”

Garrus stayed where he was, observing the scene from his vantage point. This was...interesting. A curiosity. The discussion moved to more abstract topics, Aethyta gesturing over to a recently-vacated table which the two humans slid into. Shepard took a seat which faced back towards the interior of the Citadel, and her eyes absently scanned the area. Her gaze locked onto his, and she beckoned him over.

“Shepard, Kaidan,” Garrus said, mind calculating things. “How are you doing?”

Shepard’s smile faltered. “You hadn’t heard? Oh, great.” She looked over at Kaidan who shook his head and gestured for her to continue. “Well, you know that woman who was saying she was Shepard? I, uh, may have lost my temper with her.”

“And...” Kaidan said.

“And...ended up in a fight with her.”

“In C-Sec’s interrogation room. _And_ she got kicked in the stomach.” Kaidan shot a cool look at Shepard. “The baby’s okay, thankfully.”

 _Baby?_ Garrus kept his expression neutral, choosing instead to cross his arms. “How long ago was this?”

“About an hour ago,” Shepard said. “C-Sec’s probably still trying to figure out what this ‘Ishtar Shepard’ is doing.”

_Ishtar...oh, shit. What has she done now?_

“I need to head off.”

Shepard nodded. “See you around, Garrus.”

 

[ - ]

 

Alarms were blaring in C-Sec, Ishtar glancing around from her position at an intersection. She was cloaked, only noticeable if someone ran into her, and with the chaos around her that was surprisingly unlikely. Most people were streaming either left or right, the corridor she was in going completely unused. A small break in people allowed her to dash out and make small progress towards what she hoped was the exit -- if this layout was anything like the C-Sec she knew, anyway.

She dodged and weaved through the masses of C-Sec people, squeezing against the wall and hurrying through when there were free spaces. She was almost to the main doors, she could see that, and continued on forwards. Next plan of action -- find some weapons and figure out who the hell was drawing up this huge laugh at her.

Ishtar pressed up against the side of the doors as they began to cycle open; as a salarian walked through she dashed by, skidding into the reception area of C-Sec. The doors to the main part of the Citadel were wide open and she hurried out. A short distance from C-Sec, she decloaked and took in her situation. As before, people were all milling about, seemingly unconcerned over someone decloaking right in front of them.

Ishtar ran through situations and scenarios in her head. She needed a weapon, and fast. She hurried down the nearby stairs and headed to her left, looking around at the stores. She recognised the Kassa Fabrication store and paused by there, waiting until the terminal freed up. Once it had, she scanned through the available stock.

 _M-6 Carnifex and M-98 Widow. Perfect_.

Ishtar selected the two items and moved to purchase them, but a message popped up on the screen. Ishtar frowned at it.

“‘Error: Account does not exist. Please try again’. Oh fu-antastic.” She caught sight of a small kid out of the corner of her eye just as she was mid-curse, causing her to catch up and change it to something less offensive.

She cleared the selection and backed away from the terminal. She crossed her arms across her chest, and paused, thinking. She caught movement above her, seeing Garrus. She scowled and backed up, looking to her right. The path up beside Apollo’s was mostly clear, and she started plotting a route when one word stopped her.

“Ishtar.”

 

[ - ]

 

Garrus quickly headed down the stairs, moving in front of Ishtar in what seemed like a split-second. She looked as panicked as she ever got, and as he walked towards her her eyes narrowed in suspicion before she traced the scar down his neck. The scar from Tuchanka, Grunt’s rite of passage.

“Garrus?”

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“What the fu-ndamentally random heck is going on here?”

Garrus chuckled quickly before becoming serious. “I have theories.”

“More than I have.”

Garrus placed a hand on his forehead, thinking. “Alternate universes. Parallel universes where different events occurred. Somehow we might have been pulled into one different to our own.”

Ishtar glared. “Are you shi-king me? That’s your brilliant theory?”

Garrus nodded.

“So...you’re saying _magic_ brought us here?”

“Alternate-”

Ishtar held up a hand. “Magic. Super-creepy woo-woo magic.”

Garrus smiled. “I heard you met the presumable Shepard of this universe.”

Ishtar winced, checking around her. “Yeah. And I may have kicked her in the stomach. Not my fu-reakin’ fault I didn’t know she was knocked up.” Ishtar scowled. “Besides, she hit me first! Grabbed me by the neck and started slamming me into the wall and the desk! How else was I supposed to react?” Ishtar paused. “How did you know that?”

“I ran into them a bit earlier.” Garrus inclined his head towards Apollo’s. Ishtar followed his line of sight and drew out the sight of Allison and Kaidan sitting at a table. “All right. Assuming this is an alternate universe, our best shot is going to be talking to this...other you. She’ll know the situation around here, plus if Liara’s still around she can work her broker magic to see if she can find us a way back.”

Ishtar grumbled under her breath, muttering nonsense sounds. She folded her arms across her chest and looked down at the ground, only looking back up when Garrus nudged her gently.

“You’ll also feel better once you’ve apologised.”

“Like fu-reaking hell I will! _She_ attacked _me!_ ”

“And her first instinct was to go to the hospital and check that the _baby_ was all okay.”

Ishtar muttered some more, Garrus making out some curse words this time. “All right, fine!” She threw her arms up in the air and glared at Garrus. “We’ll make nice with the knocked-up Shepard with her weird space-magic biotic powers.” She turned back to muttering. “God damn fucking biotics are a _cheat_.” She glanced over, seeing yet another kid nearby. _Fucking hell, how many kids_ are _there in the Citadel._ “Hey, kid,” she said, drawing the child’s attention. “If you overheard what I just said, don’t ever repeat it, okay?”

The child looked at her, slightly mystified, but still nodded. Ishtar sighed and turned to Garrus who was trying -- very unsuccessfully -- to hide his mirth.

“All right, let’s go.”

 

[ - ]

 

Ishtar did have to hand it to the othe-Allison -- and her unfortunate choice of beau -- they were quick on the mark. Before she and Garrus had fully crossed into the area of Apollo’s, Allison was already on her feet, hands moving in what Ishtar assumed was a biotic movement. At her reaction, Kaidan had glanced over his shoulder and also stood up, his hands out but still.

“Garrus,” Allison said, not taking her eyes off Ishtar. “Please tell me you’re taking her somewhere _private_.”

“We need to talk,” Garrus said. How he was remaining calm in this situation Ishtar didn’t know, especially when everyone in Apollo’s and also nearby was looking at them. “Do you mind if we sit down?”

Allison traded looks with Kaidan; she looked pissed off, while Kaidan seemed more relenting. Eventually Kaidan moved to sit back down, gesturing Ishtar and Garrus over; Allison remained still until they’d sat down, only folding herself into her seat when she seemed certain she wasn’t going to be attacked again.

She kept a glare levelled at Ishtar the whole time.

Garrus shifted forwards, clasping his hands together and placing them on the table, leaning forwards. “I want you to hear me out before you say anything.”

“Sure, Garrus,” Kaidan said.

Garrus looked over at Ishtar, getting an exceedingly small but unhappy nod from her before he started. “We think there may have been some kind of... _incident_ somewhere.”

Ishtar looked away, muttering under her breath. “Yeah, incident and me. _That’s_ new.”

Allison turned to look at Garrus. “Of course there was an ‘incident’. I contacted you about it, remember?” A hand went to her stomach. Kaidan reached over and grabbed her hand, moving and placing both of theirs on top of the table, his thumb stroking the back of her hand.

Rather immaturely, Ishtar moved her head to the side of the table and mimed throwing up, sticking her tongue out. Returning her attention to the table, she caught Allison glaring at her again.

“Look, Miss Priss. _You_ attacked _me!_ It’s not my fucking fault I didn’t know you were knocked up by this ass!”

Allison’s chair screeched against the floor as she stood up, slamming hands onto the table. Blue flickered around her and Ishtar looked up, slight panic in her eyes.

Garrus stood up, positioning himself between the two women. Allison kept her glare levelled at Ishtar, and when it was clear she wouldn’t move Kaidan stood up and placed his hands on Allison’s shoulders.

“I’d rather _not_ take a second trip to Huerta today, please.”

Allison broke her glare and looked over at Kaidan. In a second her blue glow disappeared and she allowed herself to be gently moved back to sit on the chair. Ishtar seemingly forgotten, Kaidan cupped Allison’s cheek in his hand and started muttering what she presumed were supposed to be comforting comments.

Garrus sat back down as well, turning to look at Ishtar.

“What?”

“What do you say?” Garrus said. “What did we discuss before we got here?” That got Allison and Kaidan’s attention again, although Ishtar did note that his hand was still entwined around hers. _Urgh._

Ishtar folded her arms and leaned back in her chair. “Sorry.”

“About what...?”

Ishtar sighed. “About kicking you in the stomach.”

“And...”

Ishtar gritted her teeth and rolled her eyes. “And I won’t do it again. Fuck, if I’d know you were pregnant in the first place I wouldn’t have done it. I would have gone for your knees instead.”

Garrus’ mouth flared slightly, seeming at a loss of words. Eventually, he managed to say something. “Ishtar, I think that apology would have worked better if you’d stopped sixteen words ago. Even eight words before would have helped.”

“But it’s true!” Ishtar turned to look at Garrus, a devilish smile appearing on her face. “Besides, I thought you liked my kneecapping ability.”

Garrus smiled slightly. “Not the best thing to discuss when you’re trying to apologise.”

Allison and Kaidan had kept silent through the conversation, Kaidan moving to speak when a lull started up. “You're not the Garrus we know, are you?" Garrus shook his head. "What was this incident?”

Snapping back to being serious, Garrus turned to look at Kaidan. “What do either of you know about the many-worlds interpretation?”

“A slight bit,” Allison said. “All potential alternate historical events occurred in alternative universes.”

Garrus nodded. “In one universe you may have been born on Earth; in another you may have been born on a colony world.” Garrus glanced over at Ishtar. “What’s the history of you in this galaxy?”

Allison looked taken aback, and Kaidan frowned.

“Humour me.”

“Born and raised in space to parents both enlisted in the Alliance Navy. Latent biotic -- gained biotic abilities a few months before my sixteenth birthday. Enrolled with the Alliance on my eighteenth birthday. Led a force of soldiers and civilians against batarian slavers and pirates on Elysium in twenty-one seventy-six. Faced off against the Reaper Sovereign in twenty-one eighty-three, died a month later. Rebuit by Cerberus and fought Collectors in twenty-one eighty-five. Fought in and ended the Reaper War in twenty-one eighty-seven.”

Garrus nodded before looking over at Ishtar. Ishtar scowled. _Well, looks like Miss Priss has the perfect life. Perfect childhood, perfect family, perfect fucking career history, and perfect fucking war against the Reapers._

“How’d they die?”

Allison snapped her attention to Ishtar. “How...?”

“The Reapers.” Ishtar waved a hand around to indicate the Presidium. “You got everyone to listen and managed to blow the assholes up before they did any real damage, right? Fucking hell.” Ishtar slammed back against the back of her chair, it rocking dangerously on its back legs for a second.

To her surprise, Allison laughed. It wasn’t a mirthful laugh; this one was bitter and sour and once done she fixed Ishtar with a steady look.

“It’s been almost three years since the end of the Reaper War. The Citadel’s been mostly patched up but no way in _hell_ did I manage to get everyone to listen until it was way too late. Heck, I had to blow up a mass relay and destroy an entire system before anyone even came _close_ to believing me.”

Ishtar snorted. “Assholes. Don’t care until Reapers are hovering over their planet.” She got a sly smile on her face. “So maybe you’re not the prissy little can’t-fight type. How’d you manage to destroy a relay?”

“Get a big enough asteroid and move it fast enough and it does the trick.” Allison heaved a sigh and closed her eyes, looking away. “Over three hundred thousand batarians died to give us six months of extra time."

“Well.” Ishtar looked around. “That six months did you a lot of good from where I’m standing.”

“No, it didn’t.”

Garrus rubbed his left mandible. “We’re getting away from the topic here. The many-worlds interpretation can explain some effects such as someone having a vastly different history or background.” He looked at Ishar. “Such as Commander Shepard instead being someone who grew up on the streets of Earth and survived a Thresher Maw attack.”

Allison’s eyes flicked between Garrus and Ishtar, and Ishtar saw the moment that Allison went from confusion to outright disbelief.

“We’ve certainly experienced some pretty strange stuff...”

“It was space magic!” Ishtar looked indignant. “Space magic fucked all of this up, and now we need to find some way to _un_ -fuck it all up! Simple, right?”

“I’ll call Liara,” Kaidan said, standing up to move away into a quiet area to make the call. “Weren’t you also going to call your mother this afternoon?”

“If she’s available.” Allison sighed and stood up. She paused, considering, and looked back at Garrus and Ishtar. “You’re not going to cause mayhem if I step away, are you?”

Ishtar gave her a mocking salute. “No, ma’am.” Technically with this other Shepard being a Major Ishtar was outranked...didn’t mean she couldn’t put a little maliciousness in her actions. She waited until Allison was a distance away before speaking. “Fucking perfect. Miss Priss gets the perfect childhood, perfect military career, everyone seemed to _love_ her...bet _she_ never had any problems getting her beau to follow her onto a Cerberus vessel.”

“Your beau followed you.” Garrus smiled at her, and Ishtar offered a small one back at him.

Kaidan walked back to the table, and Ishtar had to fight to avoid scowling at him. “Liara’s agreed to do a vid-call with us to discuss what we know. In the meantime, she’s advised us all to stick together and not do anything that could be...disruptive” His gaze ran pointedly over Ishar who scowled and sulked.

“Not _my_ fault,” she muttered.


	2. Chapter Two

Chapter Two:

 

“How--” Ishtar looked around at the apartment spanning out in front of her. “Were Garrus and Zaeed _ever_ here? For any length of time? Because they booby-trapped the _fuck_ out of mine.”

“I was trying to protect my girlfriend. I did tell you the code to prevent anything happening.”

“Girlfriend?” Allison looked at Garrus. “You two are together?”

“I thought it was obvious,” Garrus said.

“Do you have a coffee pot here?” Ishtar pointedly ignored Garrus and instead focused on Allison. “Seriously, I don’t know what Zaeed did to mine but I could never keep mine for more than a week. I swear they were brought here pre-booby-trapped!” Garrus shifted uncomfortably, and Ishtar looked over at him. “Oh, no. You didn’t--”

“Girlfriend. Safe. Protected.”

Kaidan laughed. “And you thought _I_ was overprotective.”

“Thank god you didn’t decide to start booby-trapping this place as protection.” Allison looked up as Kaidan began to speak. “No. Never. Never _ever_. I am enough of a walking grenade to deal with things on my own, thank you.”

“You are also _pregnant_. Forgive me if I want to try and keep you both safe.”

“Urgh.” Ishtar rolled her eyes. “Here we go again.” She turned so that she was looking at both Allison and Kaidan. “Being pregnant? Does _not_ make you incapable.”

“No, but being a biotic with a biotic pregnancy where we’re dealing with unknowns can be pretty fucking _terrifying_.” Allison stood, hands clenched, Kaidan slightly behind her. “We have had to be _so careful_ with this pregnancy. We still don’t know the full extent of pregnancies on biotics, of the children of said biotics. Fuck, you know what?" Allison ran a hand through her hair, turning to look at the ceiling for a second before looking back at Ishtar. "I’m a goddamned medical paper waiting to happen _right here_. We don’t know if our kid is gonna turn out all right, be born with three heads, or have cancer that’d kill them before they even turn one!”

“Blah, blah, blah.” Ishtar moved a hand dismissively. “You’re still a Shepard, right? Kid’ll be fine if it’s part you. Part him?” Ishtar looked over at Kaidan. “That’s the worrying part. Even if you are a cheat that uses space-magic you’re still kinda me and no kid of _mine_ will have brain cancer. It’ll take the fucking brain cancer and kick its ass until the cancer is sobbing on the floor!”

Allison was still glowering at her, but the intensity seemed to diminish a little.

“Ishtar? I’ve seen you and kids, hon. You get terrified around them. That’s why you love having Grunt as your unofficially adopted child.”

Allison relaxed at that, and grinned. “Huh. You’re running a pretty multicultural family, aren’t you?”

Ishtar ignored Allison briefly. “Grunt is my baby. He knows it, as much as it embarrasses him.” She turned back to Allison, a grin on her face. “Seriously, suck it up. A Shepard kid is awesome, no arguments. An Alenko kid...well, I’m sure your genes’d pick up any deficiencies of his.”

“No deficiencies here.” Allison had a smirk on her face, and she stepped forwards. She turned back to look at Kaidan. “Any word on when Liara will be able to contact us?”

“She said within the hour.”

“Time enough to get something to eat then.” Allison moved over to the kitchen area, opening the fridge door and glancing through. “Garrus, you hungry?”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Ishtar?”

Ishtar sauntered forwards, nudging past Kaidan as she went. She caught a flicker of irritation on his face and grinned to herself. “I’m not picky. Growing up on the streets, you kinda eat what you can find.” She glanced over Allison’s shoulder into the near-empty fridge and grimaced. “Seriously? Biotics are food hogs; how do you guys _not_ have any in here?”

Allison sighed and closed the door, looking over at Kaidan. “You still got the pizza place on speed-dial?”

“After we gave them a hefty tip to apologise the last time we ordered from them, yeah.” Kaidan moved to activate his omni-tool. “What do you want?”

Both Ishtar and Allison spoke at the same time, mangling their orders. Allison and Ishtar exchanged looks, and Allison let her go first.

“Veggie pizza. No pineapple. Gross stuff.” Ishtar looked over at Garrus, a grin on her face. “See? I’m _eating healthy_.”

Garrus just shook his head at that as Allison gave her own order -- mexican chicken, and Kaidan supplemented it with his own of a barbeque pizza. Kaidan checked over at Garrus before he finalised the order, but Garrus shook his head.

“Delivery in twenty minutes,” Kaidan said as he closed down his omni-tool. “Did you manage to call your mum earlier?”

Allison sighed. “No. I’ll try again now.”

 

[ - ]

 

Allison curled up in the chair in her study area, feet tucked beside her. She’d taken a short detour upstairs to grab her own N7 jacket, huddling down in it as she waited for the vid-call to connect, hoping she wouldn’t be pushed to leave a message like earlier.

“Hi sweetheart.” Hannah appeared on the vid-screen, looking slightly tired.

Allison smiled. “Hi, Mum. How are things?” She debated switching off the broadcast setting that flooded the whole apartment with the call; there was nothing too personal being discussed, and besides, the switch was on the other side of the office.

“Boring. Which is a good thing.” Hannah smiled. “How are you doing?”

“Tired. Bored. Stressed.” Allison moved to rest her chin on a clenched hand. “This pregnancy is going a lot more difficult that I had anticipated.” She avoided mentioning the incident earlier in the day -- one less thing that needed to be stressed about.

“Still taking your tablets?”

Allison snorted light-heartedly. “Yes. Between all the people who nudge me about it, I’d have to be in a coma to forget about it.”

“Nausea?”

“Going away.”

“Anemia?”

“Doc’s given me iron tablets to take.”

Hannah leaned back and cast a scrutinising eye at the vid-screen. “You’re not telling me the truth. What else is going on.”

“Nothing.” Allison winced slightly, sensing that she’d been a little too quick to deny things. Hannah continued to scrutinise her through the connection.

“If you say so. I should be getting a bit of leave in a couple of weeks and I’ll be able to see you and Kaidan then.” Hannah smiled.

“Looking forward to it.”

 

[ - ]

 

Ishtar rolled her eyes and mimed puking again as Allison and her mom spoke. Cutesy-lovey crap. _Urgh_. And that kid of hers was going to be exposed to the same stuff growing up. It was a miracle Allison even had the balls to stand up to the Reapers in the beginning!

Ishtar caught Garrus’ eye as she continued pacing across the living area, and scowled at him when he began smiling. “ _What?_ ”

“You’re jealous.”

Ishtar turned away, huffing. “I am _not_.”

Garrus flexed his mandibles. “Stop feeling guilty. We’ll figure this out and get back home soon. Don’t worry.”

“I’m _not_ worrying.” Ishtar turned away from Garrus and into the kitchen area. Thank fuck the layout was identical; saved her the time trying to figure her own way around, or asking the love-sick puppies for directions or help. She glanced over at the coffee pot, glad that it had some sign of coffee in it. Warming up already-existing coffee was one thing, but scrabbling through the cupboards to find it to begin with was another matter.

Ishtar just hoped that they had some half-decent stuff in the machine, not the sludge that they attempted to pass for coffee on Alliance vessels. Urgh. Surely that was one of the fastest ways to demoralise the people who worked for them.

Ishtar pressed in a command for the coffee to heat up, and the machine bleeped accordingly.

Then bleeped again.

And again.

Ishtar frowned, realisation setting in after a split-second, eyes widening and she backpedalled out of the kitchen. The time between blips grew shorter, and by the time she managed to dive into the living area they were almost constant.

The explosion seemed to rock the whole apartment, Ishtar cursing loudly as she clasped her arms over her head.

“Garrus!”

“I didn’t do anything!”

Ishtar looked up to the sound of hurried footsteps, snorting as she saw Allison dash into the room, face as pale as anything. Kaidan came thundering halfway down the stairs, pausing on the landing partway down and glancing over the railing. He saw Allison in the middle of the living area, seemingly unharmed, and visibly relaxed.

“ _How_ did you two ever manage to defeat the Reapers?” Ishtar yelled, staring right at Allison. “Fucking hell, a small explosion goes off and the two of you act like the world’s getting destroyed!”

Allison looked over her shoulder at Kaidan, and whatever passed between them was gone by the time Allison looked back at Ishtar. Her face was annoyingly blank, and she folded her arms across her chest.

“We’re not used to getting attacked in our own home.”

Ishtar snorted. “That shit’s obvious.” She moved to stand up, noting that no real damage had been done other than to the coffee pot itself. Glass littered the floor around it and the coffee was slowly dripping onto the floor to join it, but nothing else looked affected.

Allison looked over to where Ishtar was and sighed. She moved an arm to rub the bridge of her nose with a hand.

Ishtar looked back at Garrus. “Since when did you have enough time to rig up the coffee pot? _Why_ did you even do it?”

Garrus looked back at her, confused. “I haven’t touched the coffee pot. Haven’t even moved from over here.”

Ishtar looked taken aback. She turned her attention to Allison and Kaidan. “You guys?”

“Unless people have started selling coffee pots with built-in detonators, it’s nothing to do with us.” Kaidan held his hands up in surrender. “Garrus and Zaeed never got past the discussion of setting up booby traps.”

“Largely because you stated that we were more likely to set them all off than any potential intruder.” Allison moved to sit on the sofa, rubbing her hands over her stomach. “We can clean it up in a bit, buy a new one tomorrow...it doesn’t matter.”

Allison closed her eyes and leaned back on the sofa. Kaidan, seemingly satisfied that something else wasn’t going to explode, turned and walked back up the stairs. Once he was out of sight, Ishtar looked over at Garrus.

“Yeah,” he said. “It’s a possibility.”

 

[ - ]

 

The pizzas arrived fifteen minutes after the coffee pot explosion event, Kaidan answering the door and accepting the delivery, as well as transferring a tip to the quarian that delivered their meal.

Ishtar kept her whole focus on her own meal, averting her gaze from where Allison and Kaidan were sitting. They’d managed to entwine their legs together so much that Ishtar expected careful disentanglement and five minutes before they even had a chance at standing up without falling over or pulling the other one over. They’d balanced their own pizza boxes on their laps, although they occasionally reached across to the other’s box to grab a slice of their pizza.

It was nauseating.

Allison had flicked on the sound system before settling down, wordless melodies floating through the apartment as they sat and ate in silence. Allison and Kaidan she suspected because that’s what they did, and Ishtar...well, she wasn’t exactly in the mood for casual conversation.

Ishtar surrendered to the pizza once she’d eaten three-quarters of it; both Allison and Kaidan had finished before her, polishing off their pizzas and Kaidan disposing of the boxes. He’d walked back and asked Ishtar if she wanted hers saved; her response had been pretty much “no shit” and he’d shoved it somewhere in the fridge. Good opportunity for a midnight snack.

“You know, we don’t exactly have a place to sleep.” Ishtar looked at Garrus, and he returned her gaze with a thoughtful expression. “Can’t exactly go to a hotel and expect them to put us up for free.”

Ishtar caught Allison and Kaidan exchanging glances out of the corner of her eye, and mentally grinned. The good girl and boy scout would hardly let them sleep out on the streets of the Citadel, would they?

“We do have a spare room,” Allison said, indicating the space near the front door, then paused as she realised who she was talking to. “Which you’d know. You can stay there for tonight.”

“Just for tonight?” Ishtar said.

Allison bit her lower lip. “Until we can get this sorted out.” She glanced over at Ishtar, and Ishtar shoved down the urge to get into Allison’s face and ask what she was looking at. “We’ll need to get you some new clothes tomorrow. I don’t think anything I have will fit you.”

Damn. Clothes. She hadn’t even thought about that, and studying Allison Ishtar could see the differences in their build; she being more muscular, Allison being taller. Ishtar shrugged.

“Toss me a shirt to sleep in and I’ll call it a deal.”

 

[ - ]

 

“This is quite an interesting scenario,” Liara said over the vid-link. She alternated looking between Allison and Kaidan, and Ishtar and Garrus. “Something that’s only been prevalent in theoretical papers and stories.”

“Yeah, we get that.” Allison learned forwards, brushing one of her hands against Kaidan’s. “What we want to know is if there’s any way to get them _back_.”

Liara paused, musing over the question. To Allison’s left, Ishtar fidgeted uncomfortably. If Ishtar was thinking anything like Allison, she wanted to get back home as soon as possible. This place would have been nice, but it wasn’t _home_.

“I’ll see if I can get some of my contacts working on finding information about this. Discreetly, of course. Unusual data patterns, energy spikes, anything which could indicate something amiss.”

Allison leaned forward, smiling. “Thanks, Liara.”

 

[ - ]

 

Ishtar had turned in late that night, as was her habit. Garrus, as a turian, turned in around the same time as she had but was up much, much earlier.

And, to be frank, Ishtar would have slept a lot longer if _someone_ hadn’t decided that nine in the morning was a good time to flood the apartment with rock music with a thumping bass line to it. She loved the stuff, personally, but _not_ at nine o fucking clock in the morning!

With a grimace she tugged on her pants and, with a scowl, walked out of her bedroom and into the living room. She looked over at Allison, hair pinned back, sweatpants and a tank top, doing various weird contortions with her body, and scowled at her.

“The _fuck_ are you doing?”

To her credit, Allison didn’t flinch at all, just continued with her exercises. When both feet were on the floor and Allison had her arms by her side, she looked over at Ishtar.

“Morning,” Allison said, giving Ishtar a wide smile; Ishtar only scowled more. “Ready to go shopping?”

Ishtar declined to say anything and instead stormed back into ‘her’ room. She made to go through the motions of being able to act like a functioning human being, then paused. She muttered out some curses, realising that she had absolutely nothing in the way of, well, _anything_.

Allison was turning the music off when Ishtar walked back into the living area. Stupid, leaving her back exposed to someone she didn’t know...then again, she _was_ a biotic and for all Ishtar knew could sense someone creeping up on her.

“I’ve got clothing and toiletries on the schedule. Anything else?”

 _Yeah, get back home_. Ishtar held her tongue. “No.”

“Great.” Allison turned around. “I’ll shower and get changed, then we’ll get going.”

Ishtar nodded, moving over to the sofa and collapsing into it as Allison moved up to the second floor. She paused partway up.

“Kaidan and Garrus headed out; Kaidan wanted to get Garrus’ opinion on something, so it’ll be just us two.”

“Yeah, sure,” Ishtar said. Great, a whole day with Miss Priss. Perfect.

 

[ - ]

 

The Citadel was perfect.

The Citadel was too fucking perfect.

In her timeline, the Citadel had started to recover from Sovereign’s attack when the Cerberus Coup started, setting their progress back. Here, a similar amount of time had passed between the end of the Reaper War and now, and there was little sign of any damage whatsoever.

Of course, it could also just be that Allison was taking her through all of the nice areas of the Citadel, conveniently leaving out stuff like the Lower Wards. Yeah, that was just like the upper classes, forgetting that there were just perhaps some people who needed help, or even to just be acknowledged.

The fact that Allison was being so damned _nice_ was also setting off alarms in Ishtar’s head. Allison had practically given Ishtar free reign across the shops they’d been in so far, and if Ishtar had been in a mood to do so she was sure she could have maxed out Allison’s account. Shouldn’t she be a little more cautious about money? Shouldn’t she be saving _something_ for the kid?

Allison paused by a shop, looking as considering as Ishtar had seen her so far. As they moved on, however, Ishtar saw into the windows of the shop she’d stopped at.

“You waste your money on sh-tuff like that? C’mon, you can get chocolate anywhere.”

Allison laughed lightly, a small smile on her face, but she didn’t return a verbal answer. She continued on, heading up one of the flights of stairs around the Presidium Commons -- they were almost done with their shopping trip, Ishtar having made an idle comment about new boots earlier on. She didn’t think Allison had really heard or acknowledged it, but frowned when Allison stopped by another store.

Ishtar folded her arms across her chest, alternating between looking at the store name and back at Allison. Allison kept the small smile on her face -- an expression that was becoming maddingly annoying -- and inclined her head.

“A shoe shop?”

“You commented on new shoes.”

Ishtar walked through the doors of the store and quickly glanced around. A wide variety of footwear -- to be expected, although most if not all seemed to be geared towards humans and asari. She veered around a few other customers, scanning the shelves and almost immediately picking out a selection of boots. She grimaced internally as she scanned through all the prices, the majority of them running easily into the hundreds of credits.

Urgh, this was another reason she hated the upper classes. Have something made and a famous person’s name slapped onto it? You could easily swindle people out of ten times the expected amount. Most of the boots she saw also looked like they’d be destroyed simply by walking fast -- money didn’t guarantee quality, either.

She paused at the corner of a rack, eyes skimming down. Close to the bottom was a pair of calf-high boots, polished black. Four velcro straps running up the side, good thick soles...Ishtar picked them up, balancing the weight in her hands. They felt heavy, steady, and she ran a quick finger across the surface. Huh. Bio-leather. Damn, she hadn’t seen that stuff around in years.

She put the boot back on the rack, sweeping a glance across the price and onto the next rack. Eight hundred credits; way more than she’d usually be willing to pay for something. But they _were_ some nice boots...

Ishtar scanned through the rest of the racks, settling on a pair of shoes that was closer to a hundred and fifty credits. Nowhere near the quality of the boots she’d picked up, but she was willing to compromise. Somewhat. A store attendant, a young asari, came over and Ishtar asked for the shoe she was holding in a larger size.

Allison herself was scanning over some shoes herself, and caught the store attendant Ishtar had talked to. With a quick exchange of words the asari nodded and returned to her path to the backroom. Five minutes later, the asari walked back out, handing one box to Allison and the other to Ishtar.

Ishtar went through the motions of trying on the shoe, lacing it up and checking the fit. Good enough for her purposes. She sat back down to untie it, and a box was thrust into view.

“I don’t want to hear any arguments,” Allison said. Ishtar looked up to see a slight frown, a scowl of annoyance on Allison’s face. “If these fit, you’re getting them.”

Ishtar took the box after a few seconds’ hesitation and opened it, glancing in. They were the boots she’d picked up earlier, and Ishtar scowled at the idea that Allison had been eavesdropping or looking in on her as she shopped. Still, she yanked off the pair she’d picked up and stuffed them back into the box and slid on the pair Allison had requested.

God damn it.

They fitted almost _perfectly_. Ishtar stood up and took a few experimental steps around. This quality was worth paying a good price for and she fought to a neutral expression as she walked back to the seating area. Was that a smug expression she saw on Allison’s face?

She tore off the boots and placed them back in the box with a sharp nod. Allison grabbed the other box, the one Ishtar had initially picked up, and returned it to the asari store attendant. Ishtar busied herself with trying to put the boots back in ‘right’ but gave up when Allison walked back over. Without a word, she picked up the second box and headed over to the cashpoint, scanning across her omni-tool to access and authorise payment.

Allison handed the box back over to Ishtar who took it without a verbal complaint.

 _Damn it, now_ I _have to play nice somehow._

 

[ - ]

 

Allison’s pace slowed ever so slightly, her eyes sliding to her left. She was carrying a few bags with items Ishtar had chosen, Ishtar herself carrying most of them, whether through stubborn determination or a refusal to rely too much on someone else she wasn’t sure.

People continued to stream around them, idle chatter filling what would have otherwise been silence. The artificial sky slowly rotated overhead, skycars zoomed by, and things looked normal.

 _There. Again_.

A subtle flicker, one that barely anyone else had noticed. People continued to pass by it, walk through it, without their strides breaking or their attention drawn elsewhere. It vanished for a number of seconds before reappearing.

Ishtar had caught Allison’s varying attention, and Allison motioned for her to stay put.

“ _Fuck_ no,” Ishtar said, keeping her voice low and quiet. Ishtar grabbed Allison’s arm as the latter took a step forwards, and Allison turned to glare at her. “You’re having a kid. Kaidan’d have my head if anything happened to you. _I’m_ going; _you’re_ staying put.”

Allison snorted. “This is _my_ home.”

“I’m better at sneaky! You biotics don’t know how to kill quietly if you need to! You’re all flashy and fancy and ‘look at me I’m glowing blue!’”

“Sneaky? Says the woman who tried to _deck_ me in the middle of a crowded Presidium.” Allison yanked her arm out of Ishtar’s grip and stepped forwards. “Stay here.”

She heard Ishtar mutter something under her breath that sounded a lot like a string of curses put together with little creativity but continued on. Walking purposefully, most everyone stepped out of her way and the few that didn’t did so after a few seconds of staring and commenting “is that Shepard?”

_Oh, damn it._

Up ahead, Allison saw the flicker of a tactical cloak disappearing and saw Ishtar standing right next to where she’d spotted the anomaly. Allison broke into a run, dodging out of the way of people between her and Ishtar.

“Don’t touch it!”

Ishtar backed up, looking over her shoulder. She seemed to study Allison before stepping forwards and reaching a hand up to the object.

As an explosion rocked the Presidium, Allison slid to her knees and threw up a barrier. Unlike her normal battlefield barrier that clung to her body, this was more like a small barrier sphere. As the area around her cleared, the dust settling down, she looked forwards.

“Ishtar?” Allison swept her gaze around, heart thudding. She called again, and after a few seconds a choking voice answered her.

“Fucking hell, what was that?” Ishtar stepped into view, a frown on her face as she coughed a couple more times, waving her hand across to try and clear the smoke and dust. Allison heaved a sigh of relief before cancelling her barrier and getting to her feet.

“What was _that_ all about?” Allison said as she drew closer to Ishtar. “What did you do?”

“Me?” Ishtar shot her a dark look. “I went to check out what was going on. You were gonna slam some kind of space magic into it, no doubt. That would have caused a much bigger explosion.”

“Like your interference didn’t interrupt your sneaky attempt?” Allison folded her arms across her chest and glared at Ishtar. If _that_ was what she considered ‘sneaky’, she could forget it. She drew her attention away from Ishtar and back towards where the explosion had occurred. Already, people were on omni-tools, some contacting C-Sec, others calling friends or family, and yet more just standing around in disbelief.

Allison stepped closer to the centre of the explosion, frowning as she scanned the area. Nothing seemed to be amiss aside from the explosion, and with the speed some people were attempting to get C-Sec to this area they’d soon be able to get some tech specialists down and investigate how something as simple as a seemingly ripple in the air had caused so much damage.

A flash of armour caught Allison’s eye, and her frown deepened. C-Sec couldn’t be there already, with armour and weapons as well? She took another step forwards into the smoke, narrowing her eyes to attempt to see better.

A flash of relief vanished and was replaced by equal amounts adrenaline and fear. She backpedaled as the all-too familiar white and gold armour of Cerberus troops appeared in her view.

“Move, move move!”

Allison yelled at the top of her lungs, shoving a few people away from the explosion site. Some did so on her command, but many more only took action when the Cerberus assault trooper pounded into view, weapon in hand.

The Presidium erupted into chaos, people attempting to get away, hurried comments involving thought that Cerberus was gone echoing around. Allison tore her attention away from the disappearing civilians, instead glaring at the Cerberus trooper. He seemed to be uncertain as to where he was, and Allison used that to her advantage. A blue shimmer appeared around her, and a second later she had slammed into the trooper, sending him stumbling back. She focused, slamming her fist down to the ground, her biotic barrier exploding all around her.

She moved back quickly, glancing over her shoulder for cover. The best she could see was some generic benches, nothing that would stand up substantially to a gun or any other non-melee weapon.

She saw the flicker of a tactical cloak disappearing and saw Ishtar appear behind the trooper, stabbing a knife into one of the weak points in the armour. Allison summoned a blue corona around her right arm, slamming her fist into the visor and shattering it. Ishtar dodged out of the way before stabbing the knife into the trooper’s neck. The trooper fell, blood pooling around the body, and Ishtar pulled the knife out.

“ _Where_ did you get a weapon?” Allison asked. Ishtar wiped the knife on her jacket sleeve, casually walking up to where Allison was standing.

“Your kitchen.”

“My-? Urgh.” Allison wiped a hand over her face, grimacing. “What the hell are we gonna tell C-Sec when they get here?”

“We don’t?” Ishtar looked at Allison, and she wasn’t sure whether to take Ishtar seriously or not. “What exactly is C-Sec gonna say to you? Shake their fingers at you because they can’t detain a Spectre?”

“I was more thinking about _you_.” Allison sighed before holding her hand out. “Give me the knife.”

Ishtar took a step back, looking at Allison suspiciously. “Why?”

“Because I need you to get the hell out of here before C-Sec _does_ show up. Or have you forgotten that you were in their cells no more than a day ago?”

With a grumble, Ishtar handed over the knife and Allison slipped it into the waistband of her jeans, obscured by her jacket. Checking that it wasn’t visible, Allison nodded at Ishtar. “Get back to the apartment.”

Ishtar levelled a glare at Allison before she turned, picked up all the shopping bags scattered around, and headed off.

 

[ - ]

 

As soon as she was five steps out of earshot, Ishtar loaded up her omni-tool and scrolled through her contacts list until she found Garrus’ name. Hoping that it still would connect to the right Garrus, and also she wouldn’t somehow be charged some extreme roaming cost, she selected the option and waited for the call to connect.

“Ishtar?” The connection was voice-only, but it had connected. Ishtar swiped her hair back and looked around cautiously.

“Some creepy shit is going on here. A Cerberus trooper just assaulted us -- me and Miss Priss -- in the middle of the Presidium.”

“Everything all right?”

“Yup, just peachy. Cerberus guy bled out on the floor of the Presidium, and Allison’s playing nicey-nice with C-Sec for me.” She looked around as she hit the skycar area. “I’m heading back to the apartment; where are you?”

“Doesn’t matter. I’m heading back now as well. Meet you there.”

 

[ - ]

 

Allison settled onto one of the nearby benches with a sigh. She kept a continuous eye on the Cerberus trooper, ready just in case he decided to spontaneously come back from the dead and start attacking again.

Stranger things had happened, right? Like she spending two years on what was practically an operating table, not to mention a her from another universe randomly showing up.

Allison hid her face in her hands, bending over. Forget Cerberus, forget the Reapers, at this rate she and Ishtar would destroy the Citadel simply by virtue of being around each other.

Footsteps sounded nearby and Allison snapped her head up, relaxing slightly when she saw Garrus approaching with a couple of other C-Sec officers. His expression twitched in amusement, a turian smile.

“Been busy causing chaos, Shepard?”

Allison gave him a smirk as she stood up. “You know me, Garrus. Can’t got a few months without some kind of galaxy-wide threat landing at my doorstep.”

Garrus chuckled at that, ordering the two C-Sec officers to secure the scene. He instead walked over to Allison and looked down at her. “Are you all right? Need to get to Huerta?”

Allison snorted and rolled her eyes, moving her head as she did so. “No. Please. I’m unhurt. I just...” she waved a hand over to where the Cerberus trooper was. “I wanna get home, take a nap, and wake up to find that this was all one very bizarre dream.”

Garrus nodded and moved to coordinate the other officers. Within a few minutes the scene was secured, Allison’s statement taken (the knife brandished as ‘proof’ of her role in attacking the trooper), and Garrus returned his attention to her.

“Back to your apartment?” Garrus said, and Allison relaxed.

“Yeah.” She made to move off when Garrus gently closed his talons around her elbow. Allison frowned slightly and looked back. “I can handle myself, you know.” She gave a pointed look at the trooper.

“I know. Kaidan’s orders.” Garrus gave her an apologetic look, and she sighed.

“All right. Lead the way.”


	3. Chapter Three

Chapter Three:

 

Allison rubbed her eyes as she and Garrus walked to the front door of her apartment. She hadn’t felt tired until the adrenaline had worn off, and all she could think of was to get into her apartment and collapse into her bed for a nap. Screw all those perky happy people who went ‘you’ll start to get your energy back!’ -- she was just starting to feel _worse_.

She glanced over at Garrus who, to his credit, had mentioned nothing of how she looked or what had happened, choosing instead to keep up a steady stream of small talk as they traversed the area between the Presidium and Silversun Strip.

Allison waved her arm across the access panel, the lock to her apartment registering her code and unlocking the door. She stifled a yawn as she walked into the apartment, absently noting Ishtar walking from the living area towards the two of them.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Garrus look confused. She ignored it, taking a couple more steps in and waiting for the door to close behind them. As it did, Ishtar continued moving forwards, Allison muffling another yawn.

Ishtar stopped in front of Garrus, wrapping her arms around his neck and nuzzling into him in one swift movement. Garrus froze in place, looking over at Allison, and her tired mind clicked into place.

“Uh, Ishtar? That’s not-”

The door behind them opened again, and Allison glanced over her shoulder. The other Garrus, and a rather pissed-off looking Kaidan, looked at the scene in front of them.

When Allison looked back, Ishtar had already let go of Garrus and was three steps away, flicking her eyes between the Garrus in front of her and the one who had just entered the apartment.

“Not your Garrus,” Allison finished in a quiet voice.

The shock wore off; Garrus strode forwards and grabbed Ishtar’s arm roughly. In almost the same movement the other Garrus moved forwards as well, Kaidan grabbing onto him to hold him back. Allison moved forwards, striding between the first Garrus and Ishtar, roughly pushing them apart.

“Enough!” Allison turned to Garrus. “If I have to put you in the hospital, _I will_.” She turned to Ishtar. “Be glad I’m here.” She turned to Kaidan and the other Garrus. “Let him go.”

Kaidan let the second Garrus go and Garrus walked towards Ishtar, placing a hand on her arm as Allison backed away. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Mortally embarrassed, but physically fine.” Ishtar looked over to Allison, holding out her hand. “Give it.”

“No. This is going back in the drawer where it belongs _and will stay_.”

The first Garrus sighed, watching the exchange. “What has been going on here?”

Kaidan moved to speak first. “Long story. Short version: she--” he pointed at Ishtar. “Is an alternate her--” he pointed at Allison. “From another universe.”

“Another universe. Right. And you want me to believe this plausible only in fiction event happened?” Garrus looked at his alternate self and Ishtar.

“Occam’s Razor, Garrus.” Allison moved to sit down on the sofa with a sigh. “The simplest explanation with the fewest assumptions is usually the most correct.” She ran a hand across her eyes. “First priority, figure out how we’re going to tell these two Garruses apart.”

Ishtar grinned. “Oh, I think I can tell my snugglypuss apart from the other one.” She wrapped an arm around Garrus’ waist; he averted his gaze, looking down to the floor and moving his mandibles slightly.

“Sure. That’s exactly why you hugged the wrong Garrus when he walked in.” Allison turned her attention from Ishtar to the other Garrus. “How’s Tali doing?”

“Still working with the Flotilla and geth.”

Ishtar looked across to them, flicking her gaze from Allison to Garrus. “Wait, Tali? Tali’Zorah vas Normandy?”

“Tali’Zorah vas Rannoch, technically.” Allison stifled another yawn. “Or would that be Tali’Zorah vas Rannoch vas...whatever the name of the ship she is Admiral of.” She rubbed her eyes again. “Sorry guys, I need to go and take a nap. Damn baby’s been leeching all my energy recently.” She moved to stand up, diverting quickly to the kitchen and dumping the knife Ishtar had taken before making her way to the second floor bedroom.

“I’ll be up in a few minutes, Allison,” Kaidan said. He glanced around at the people with him. “Just need to make sure this place won’t be blown up while you sleep.”

Allison snorted good-naturedly. “Yeah, that’d be good.”

 

[ - ]

 

Garrus’ mandibles flared as he looked at the people in front of him. C-Sec had been in chaos trying to find the escaped prisoner, and now she was just standing in Shepard’s apartment as if nothing had happened? That didn’t make sense...but then again, Shepard seemed to make a life out of nonsensical things.

The other Garrus seemed unsettled, mandibles flaring slightly and talons twitching. Ishtar was just giving him a steely look as if she could see right into his mind. Kaidan looked almost as exhausted as Shepard had and as Garrus watched he ran a hand through his hair.

“I trust you three can avoid causing damage for ten, fifteen minutes, right?” Kaidan said, keeping his gaze focused on Ishtar and the other Garrus. When he got a nod from the other Garrus he sighed and turned to the stairs.

“So,” Ishtar said, moving to sit down on the sofa. She stretched her legs out, booted feet resting on the seats. “Snugglypuss and stick up his ass? Those nicknames work for both of you?”

Garrus laughed a little, and the surprise on Ishtar’s face made him laugh more. She seemed to brighten a little, pulling her legs towards her with her knees pointing up towards the ceiling. She leaned up, resting her chin on her knees and fixing him with a smirk.

“I’m assuming I can trust you two alone without coming back to see the place in ruins.” Garrus activated his omni-tool and scrolled through his contacts. “I’m stepping out to make some calls.”

“Sure, whatever.” Ishtar gave a dismissive wave and looked away from him. Garrus turned and headed out of the apartment and down to Silversun Strip -- the place was crowded enough at all times that any conversation he had would be masked by the general chatter.

“C-Sec,” drawled a male voice, the bored-looking owner appearing a few seconds later. “Hey, Garrus, where’d you disappear to?”

“Had some personal business I needed to do. Listen, is that arrest warrant for a human named Ishtar still out?”

“Sure is.”

“Revoke it. There was ah...a misunderstanding and it’s been cleared up now.”

“Sure, whatever you say, Garrus.”

The call disconnected and Garrus leaned forwards against one of the railings in the strip, looking around. Despite being in close proximity to the Presidium, Silversun Strip hadn’t been that damaged during the last few days of the Reaper War, and had been one of the first areas cleaned up and returned to functionality. While it made sense that people would turn to entertainment to get their mind off recent events, it was still a little prickling that it was prioritised higher than other aspects.

Garrus took a step back, activating his omni-tool again. His talons typed out a quick message, checking to see if Tali was within range of a comm. buoy and with enough free time to take a call from him.

 

[ - ]

 

Ishtar watched as Garrus moved along a small section of the apartment -- it wasn’t pacing, he’d told her numerous times, just keeping up momentum to help him think.

“Babe, I’m sorry, I thought--”

“You thought he was me.” There was more than a hint of annoyance in Garrus’ voice, and she winced.

“I didn’t mean--”

“I know.”

“He was--”

“I know.”

“You admit you have trouble telling humans apart when they have the same skin and hair colour.”

Garrus looked over at her. “We are really going to have to make sure people can tell us apart.”

“What, you mean my nicknames aren’t good enough?” Ishtar folded her arms and mock-pouted. “I thought they were clever.”

“They certainly got a laugh out of the...other me.” Garrus cleared his throat, turning back to being serious. “I know you can be more serious than this; please act it. It’s bad enough that we’re fighting a war against the Reapers back home, we don’t need an intergalactic war on our hands as well.”

“Yeah. I keep on wondering what’s going on back there. Whether anyone’s noticed we’re missing--”

“They have.”

“And what they’re doing to try and find us.” Ishtar’s focused drifted from the living area up to where the second floor bedroom was, noting that the door was closed.

Garrus moved to crouch beside the sofa, taking one of Ishtar’s hands in his. “We’ll get back home, I promise.”

Ishtar smiled a small smile. “You’d better keep to that promise.”

 

[ - ]

 

Kaidan looked back down into the living area one more time, checking that no destruction had occurred in the half minute it had taken him to walk up the stairs, and closed the bedroom door behind him.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, and Allison looked up from where she’d laid down on the bed. She’d stripped off her jacket and shoes and all but collapsed on top of the sheets. One hand curled around her stomach, the other folded up underneath her head.

“Tired,” Allison said with a sigh, moving her head back down and closing her eyes. Kaidan moved across the room and sat down on the bed, moving a hand to stroke Allison’s back.

“So, Cerberus?”

Allison’s eyes snapped open and she looked up at Kaidan with concerned eyes. “What do you know?”

“That a Cerberus trooper attacked you and Ishtar while you were out shopping. I also know that C-Sec reported the trooper dead and you were around to give a statement.” Kaidan sighed. “Please tell me you didn’t take on the trooper by yourself.”

“I didn’t.”

Kaidan was slightly taken aback by that, but then his gaze drifted over to the closed bedroom door for a moment. “Please tell me _you_ and _Ishtar_ didn’t take on the trooper by yourselves.”

“I shan't answer then.”

Kaidan sighed and moved his hand away from Allison’s back, rubbing the middle of his forehead. “Allison--”

“Don’t ‘Allison’ me. This was a crowded area with tons of people. Was I supposed to just call C-Sec and stand by?”

“That’s what pretty much everyone else did.”

“‘Everyone else’ doesn’t include a Spectre.”

Kaidan moved a hand to Allison’s stomach, grabbing her hand in his. “A _pregnant_ Spectre who is on maternity leave. You see to be forgetting that part.”

Allison grimaced and gritted her teeth, but when she spoke it was calm. “I was careful. I wasn’t going to let more Cerberus troopers, even if it was just the one, rampage across the Citadel.”

Kaidan sighed and shifted; the bed moved and Allison was jostled slightly as he did. He bent down, unlacing his shoes and slipping them off before lying down on the bed. He shifted over to Allison, placing a comforting hand on her stomach.

A thousand thoughts ran through his head, a million discussion points, but he kept his tongue still. Instead, he let his hand draw tiny circles on Allison’s stomach, and she sighed after a few seconds.

“I can’t stand by.” Allison closed her eyes. “Couldn’t then and can’t now. Call it a failing, but...”

“You have a habit of charging in to the rescue. Literally.”

Allison opened her eyes and gave him a small smile. The smile instantly disappeared, replaced by a look of shock then, a few seconds later, Allison was off the bed and running towards the bathroom.

Kaidan moved through a moment later, once the initial shock had worn off. Allison was hunched over the toilet, retching. He went to his knees, brushing hair away from Allison’s face before moving to start rubbing her shoulders. The retching subsided after a bit; as Allison reached for some toilet paper, Kaidan handed her a small wad.

“Urgh. Fuck.”

“Very eloquent,” Kaidan said, getting a glare for his response. Allison got to her feet, rinsing her mouth out over the sink a couple of times.

“When I’d gone two days without feeling sick, I thought I’d gotten past this stage.” Allison heaved a sigh and grabbed her toothbrush. “I hate this,” she managed to mumble as she brushed her teeth, glaring slightly at Kaidan.

He held up his hands in mock-surrender. “You were, as I recall, both a willing participant and rather enthused about the whole idea. You can’t shift all the blame on me now.”

Allison tossed him another look, this one caught between aggravation and resignation, and finished up brushing her teeth. “I’m going to take a nap. Try and make Ishtar and not-Garrus don’t burn the place down.”

 

[ - ]

 

Ishtar slipped the kitchen knife back into her boot before she moved to stand behind and slightly to the side of the couch, mind flicking through plans and scenarios. Garrus had settled into a seat just opposite her, but she chose to stay standing for the moment.

“So, that flicker...you think that might be something?”

Garrus inclined his head to the right. “Perhaps. We don’t know how well Cerberus is still funded here.”

“After the war...it’s really over here? The Reapers are gone?”

“That’s what Kaidan told me. He elaborated a little further on what Allison had said, but I...stopped him before he got to details.”

Ishtar looked at Garrus, a scowl on her face. “Seriously? We land in a random other universe where the Reapers are gone, and you want to _avoid_ finding out what happened? _Garrus_ , this could be our chance. We look up how the Reapers got destroyed, then we take that information back to our universe and stop them!”

Garrus shifted in his seat; after a moment, Ishtar moved over and sat on his lap sideways, extending her still-booted feet out across the rest of the sofa. Ishtar nuzzled into his neck before she spoke again, voice slightly muffled.

“We need all the advantages we can get, right? Maybe they can tell us what the Catalyst is and how to get it.”

“Or we find something out that could screw up our universe.”

“Screw up how?”

Garrus sighed, and Ishtar could feel his mandibles moving. She pulled away and looked up at him. “What if defeating the Reapers came at a high cost? Would you want to see if people we knew died trying to stop them?”

“I--hell yeah! Of course I would.” Garrus looked at her, and after a moment her resolve broke. “Garrus, if we can find a way that will help _us..._ ”

“At what price?” Garrus’ mandibles were really flaring now. “Whose death would you be able to deal with? Miranda? Jacob? What if you found something about Liara or Wrex? What about Grunt?”

Ishtar pushed herself away from Garrus, fists clenched. She moved two strides away and stopped, turning to glare at him. “Fuck you. _Fuck you, Garrus._ ”

She didn’t allow him to say anything else before she moved towards the front door, almost wishing it was an old fashioned door that she could slam it shut right in his face.

 

[ - ]

 

Kaidan ran a hand through his hair as the door to the bedroom closed behind him, and he looked over the railings. With a frown, he saw that only Garrus was there, and made his way down the steps.

“Where’s Ishtar?”

Garrus looked away, tucking his mandibles in tight. Kaidan folded his arms across his chest and repeated his question when Garrus remained silent.

“She left,” Garrus said finally.

“Left _where?_ ”

Garrus didn’t answer immediately again, and Kaidan sighed. He ran a hand through his hair, thinking. Ishtar couldn’t get off the Citadel without money, but it was large enough that someone could get lost if they really wanted to. He couldn’t easily track down the signal from her omni-tool to locate her, and he didn’t have contact details--

“Do your omni-tools still work here?”

Garrus turned to look at Kaidan, mandibles pressed in and eyes slightly widened. Garrus shuffled a little before answering. “Yes, they do.”

“Call her.”

Garrus looked up at Kaidan, an unreadable expression on the turian’s face. After a moment, Garrus loaded up his omni-tool and scanned through his contacts, quickly choosing to call Ishtar. As the screen showed a flashing ‘Connecting...’ screen, Kaidan loaded up his own omni-tool and scanned through the frequency -- bouncing off communications arrays, he could piggy-back onto the call and lock onto Ishtar’s omni-tool frequency and use that to track her down.

Just as the call ended without Ishtar answering, Kaidan smiled to himself. A draggable map of a section of the Citadel appeared on his omni-tool and Kaidan flicked through it.

“Got it; she’s down at Silversun Strip, not far from here. Looks like...” Kaidan paused, tapping in a few commands to bring up journey history, a blue line being superimposed over the map. “Looks like she’s heading to Armax Arsenal Arena.”

 

[ - ]

 

Ishtar had a permanent scowl stuck to her face as she moved around. Typical high-class assholes. this place didn’t even look like it had been touched, all still sparkly and new. Crowds massed around, and Ishtar caught glimpses of conversation, ninety-nine percent of them about personal worries and concerns, and only a mere one percent saying anything about the Cerberus trooper in the Presidium Commons. If that Cerberus trooper had ended up here, Ishtar would bet that everyone would have been screaming for some kind of compensation.

Ishtar snorted, and her booted foot hit the ground harder than needed. But damn were these boots solidly built and sturdy... _and fuck Allison for buying them. Hell, why is she so god-damn fucking_ nice _to me?_

Ishtar moved across the strip, still pounding the boots on the walkway and ignoring the occasional glances she was getting. Like anyone she passed would really care about her five minutes after she passed by them.

The strip itself was nice, too bad it was stuffed to the brim with upper-class snobs. Ishtar doubted if anyone from the Lower Wards ever really came up here, or even if they were allowed to get within sight of the strip.

Ishtar moved on, and walked further on. The varying neon lights gave everything an odd, otherworldly glare, the colours mingling where multiple signs were. She brushed up against the entrance of the Armax Arsenal Arena and glanced over; a few people were milling around the entrance, and a couple of vorcha trying to call people over for street-side magic tricks. No one seemed to be taking the bait on that, and Ishtar also bypassed the vorcha, heading through the main entrance of the arena.

Once the doors closed behind her, the murmurings of people disappeared, replaced by a generic techno beat. Ishtar brushed past the people in front of her, taking the stairs two at a time and quickly walking out into the spectators’ area.

She gave a longing glance at the athlete’s entrance, noting that there were multiple signs up cautioning people to ensure they had their passes on them; oh, if only she had been able to swipe Allison’s card (there was no way a Shepard lived in the tower apartment complex opposite and _wouldn’t_ have a pass). Instead, she walked around it and up to near the spectators’ stalls. They at least appeared to be free -- nothing was plastered up asking for a pass like the athlete’s entrance, and no one seemed to have any devices for exchanging credits.

_But..._

Ishtar looked around. There didn’t seem to be many people around, and those that were seemed to be focusing on some of the screens plastered on the left side of the area. Ishtar backed away from the spectator’s stalls and towards the screens.

There were four screens, all stacked side by side, and all playing the same vid. Jungle type area, camera focused mainly on two people as they tore their way through...was that _geth_ there? _The fuck are they doing?_ Ishtar narrowed her eyes and took a step closer. She watched as the two people began to tear through them like nothing, then a flicker caught her eye. The geth that had been shot shimmered and turned orange, breaking away like a holographic display.

The vid ended, a splash screen with the Arena logo on it, and a couple of people who had been standing beside Ishtar moved away. After a moment, the splash screen moved away, showing another vid. This one didn’t seem to be of the combat Arena -- footage was too shaky, too unprofessional. The image cleared up a little and Ishtar saw rubble and smoke, and the camera steadied on one person, jerking slightly as they ran.

“Allison Shepard, Saviour of the Citadel and Defender of the Galaxy! You’ve seen the vids of her in battle --”

The voice stopped as the vid switched to another scene, this one looking like it was from security footage. The area of the Citadel was blackened with smoke, Cerberus troops pouring out from seemingly everywhere. Garrus was a step behind her, as was Vega. Seconds later, Allison moved across to a bunch of Cerberus troopers in a blur of blue, her shield exploding around her and knocking back more of the troopers.

“You’ve seen her in battle at the Armax Arsenal Arena!”

Another vid cut, this one showing Allison on her own on a circular arena, facing down a number of Reaper forces -- Ishtar shuddered slightly as she saw a Banshee move across the arena floor, Allison zipping between enemies in a blue blur.

“Now, take a piece of history home with you! Special editions of Allison Shepard’s Armax Arsenal Arena battles available from the kiosk now! Only one hundred credits each!”

Another splash screen appeared, this one showing a number of covers, each with Allison on it in some kind of battle stance. Ishtar managed to count seven individual covers before the screen changes again.

Ishtar moved back, folding her arms across her chest and raising an eyebrow. _Really? Miss Priss wins against the Reapers and this is the kind of stuff she does afterwards? Jesus fucking Christ..._

“Attention, spectators. The next arena match will be starting in fifteen minutes. Please make your way over to the spectators’ stalls. Thank you.”

The female voice, what Ishtar assumed was a VI, clicked off and everyone who had been in the spectators’ area moved towards the stalls. Ishtar followed and as she did so, her omni-tool began to beep and flash at her. On habit, she glanced down to see ’Garrus Calling...’ on the screen; she muted it and pointedly ignored the call.

 _If he’s trying to apologise to me, he’d be better off waiting and doing it to my face_.

Alongside the spectators’ area were a few stalls, most selling the typical snack foods. Ishtar ignored them, despite her stomach’s protestations that she was getting quite hungry, and instead moved through the barriers, which seemed to be there more as something that was in the plans than anything to necessarily keep people in or out. A staff member directed her to a seat near the front, and Ishtar settled in, leaning forwards and looking out over the clear fencing. Spectator seating was on three sides, the fourth opening out to the spectators’ area, and about a third full. They were very high up, a good two storeys at least, with screens and scoreboards suspended higher over the arena itself. The scoreboard was set to zero, and the screens displaying a simple ‘Next battle starting soon’ in white on a cool blue background.

Ishtar leaned back, folding her arms across her chest and placing her left foot atop her right knee. _Well, maybe watching someone fight the shit out of someone else will be relaxing._

 

[ - ]

 

Kaidan nodded to a couple of people as he moved along the Strip; even if he hadn’t been famous enough to be known on his own right, being the husband of the legendary Shepard brought enough prestige as it was. And if they’d both been typical, average residents, he still would have gotten a fair amount of attention just being a resident of Tiberius Towers.

The path from the apartment complex to the Arena was pretty much a straight line; the path he’d seen Ishtar take had been quite circular, meaning she’d probably walked out of the apartment without much thought as to where she was heading. Kaidan quickly re-checked his data, seeing that she was still settled in the Arena. Perfect.

Kaidan had debated the merits of inviting along Ishtar’s Garrus with him, but decided against it. If anything, for him to run into Garrus with Garrus in tow would raise a few questions at the least, and if Ishtar and her Garrus had gotten into an argument, Kaidan didn’t want to fan the flames by bringing the source along.

He hit the main entrance of the Arena and walked through, heading quickly up the stairs. He took a quick glance around, noting that they were _still_ trying to convince people to buy the ‘special editions’ of Allison’s battles there -- as calm and patient Allison was, Kaidan was thankful the admins had decided to ask her permission (and throw in an offer of a percentage of the sales) before they went ahead with the decision to sell them. Allison had been all ready to say no and cut off sales, but some carefully placed appeals from fans, some of which he was certain were not genuine, made her relent.

It was annoying at the best of times, doubly so when he caught a glimpse of himself on some of the scenes they were using to sell the vids.

Kaidan moved around the athlete’s entrance, debating the situation he’d landed himself in. No Garrus meant no source of the argument with him, but also no one to defuse the situation if it got out of hand. Ishtar had made it patently clear that she didn’t like Kaidan, for whatever reason, and if she was still pissed off enough to react with fists and weapons instead of words he was probably the worst person for her to talk to.

At least if she became too much of a risk he could lock her in stasis again.

“Hey, Alenko,” one of the staff members said, immediately recognising Kaidan the moment he saw him. “You here for a battle? Hate to tell you, but there’s a bit of a wait. We’ve got the next match starting in a bit over five minutes.”

Kaidan smiled politely. “Sorry to disappoint, Livius, but I’m here as a spectator today.”

“Shame,” Livius said, his mandibles dropping slightly. “Management would have loved to get some new footage for the next volume of Shepard’s arena battles.”

 _I bet they would_. Kaidan kept the polite smile on his face until he was past the barriers, doing one last check with his omni-tool. Three rows ahead, a little to the left...he looked up to confirm with his eyes what his omni-tool was telling him. Yes, that was Ishtar there, hemmed in in all directions by spectators.

Kaidan typed up a quick message and sent it across to Allison’s omni-tool, hoping that it wouldn’t wake her if she was asleep. With the screens showing the next battle due to start, he settled in to watch.

 

[ - ]

 

The one problem with being involved in some of the Arena matches, Kaidan mused as the last competitor moved out of the arena, was that you began to stop watching events with enjoyment, and start scrutinising what had happened. The team of three had been sloppy, uncoordinated, and had barely made a dent in their enemies in the first wave. The second wave had been a little better, but they were still hopelessly outmatched against their chosen Collector enemies. As much as he hated thinking it, they would have been better off with the geth had they still been coded into the system.

The spectators began to trickle out, a few commenting analysis on the battle like he had, but most simply stating about their enjoyment of the whole situation. Ishtar, he noted, had stayed perfectly still where she was, even when all the seats around her emptied out. Taking a chance, Kaidan got up from his seat and moved forwards a few rows, settling down into the seat next to him.

“Thought it was you. So, what, come to handcuff me and drag me back?”

“I was thinking on your opinion of the battle.”

“They sucked. How’d they even get a pass? I’d hope they wouldn’t let just anyone walk in and fight.” Ishtar turned to look at Kaidan with a glare. “But then, when you’re going along smashing helpless geth, I suppose anything’s possible.”

“Geth?”

“Yeah.” Ishtar leaned back, hands behind her head and still glaring at Kaidan. “The fuck happened, Alenko? Allison decide to go all trigger-happy and smash them into synthetic bits? Why the hell are they an enemy option here?”

Kaidan frowned. “What are you talking about?”

Ishtar stood up, towering over Kaidan and swinging an arm out, coming close to his face. “The _geth!_ I saw some of the promo videos showing a team hacking through a shit-ton of geth. And don’t get all high and mighty and try placating me saying they’re not real, you’re still cutting through a whole group of people and letting others get the impression that it’s all _okay to do so!_ ”

Kaidan looked up at Ishtar, confusion flicking through his face. “The promo vids in the spectators’ area?” Ishtar didn’t speak nor change her expression, and Kaidan continued. “The geth were removed from the programming well over three years ago.”

Ishtar’s face changed to confusion. “What?”

“It would have been right around the time of the end of the quarian-geth war. When news trickled through that the geth were on our side they were removed from the programming.”

Ishtar seemed to consider that for a moment before the scowl returned. “They’re still using vids of people shooting up geth. You’d think they’d remove that shit as well!”

Kaidan stood up, forcing Ishtar to move her hand away. He turned away from Ishtar and moved towards the gates, Ishtar following a moment later.

“I’ll talk to the management, see if they can get some different promo vids cycled in and remove scenes of the geth. No one else had really thought about that.”

“No, shit,” Ishtar said, matching Kaidan’s stride and folding her arms. “You people live in a completely different world to me.”

Kaidan let out a small laugh. “Aren’t you from a different universe?”

Ishtar let out a small growl. “Not what I was meaning.”

Kaidan and Ishtar moved through the barriers, Kaidan nodding at another of the staff there. Instead of veering off to try and talk to someone right then, he instead stuck close by Ishtar as the two headed through the spectators’ area and down the stairs.

“Hungry?” Kaidan asked as they hit the bottom of the stairs, Ishtar frowning at him a little. “There are a few nice restaurants around. I’ll pay.”

Ishtar shrugged, and as they walked out of the main doors of the Arena Kaidan veered to the left along the main section of the strip. The people had dissipated a little, the strip a little less crowded than at peak times. Kaidan checked the time and saw it was a little past ten-thirty Citadel time -- perfect post-lunch time to try and get a table somewhere.

“We have Italian, Spanish tapas, a couple of asari places, a burger restaurant, an ice cream parlour if you don’t want to sit for a whole meal--”

“Whatever’s cheapest. Not fussy.”

“If you’re wanting cheap, I know this great place down in the Lower Wards. Mostly fried foods, but it’s great value for money.” Kaidan glanced over his shoulder, looking at the rapid transport dock. “We could be there in a short while.”

Ishtar snorted, then laughed. She muttered something under her breath, then cleared her throat. “Biotic’s choice. Only requirement is that we get ice cream afterwards.”

“Fine with me.”


	4. Chapter Four

Chapter Four:

 

Ishtar drummed her fingers against the table slightly, the sound and vibrations likely carrying across to the other side where Kaidan was sitting. Before they’d sat down he’d tapped away at his omni-tool, and she’d sighed -- even here he was still a huge tech-geek. He had surprised her by setting his omni-tool to standby mode and not touching it again, even when silence covered them. They’d gotten more than a reasonable amount of glances, most people probably wondering who Kaidan was having a late lunch with, and why they were eating in silence.

Ishtar was poking over her chicken alla cacciatore, head down as she ate. The salarian wait staff had brushed by a couple of times, offering drinks refills but she’d waved them off. Some of them had engaged Kaidan in light talk, but a glare from Ishtar had sent them all scurrying off after a while; if Kaidan thought anything about that, he didn’t say.

“So,” Ishtar said, waving a fork over her meal. Kaidan looked at her, eyebrows slightly raised. “Who’d you send the mail to before we sat down?”

“Just to Allison, letting her know where I am. Just in case.”

“‘Just in case’? What, she gonna hunt you down if she doesn’t know your exact location? Christ, you guys are pathetic.”

Kaidan didn’t answer, a mask sliding into place and forming a neutral expression. Ishtar mentally kicked herself, eating a bit more before speaking again.

“So. The geth. They used to be in the Arena, but they were removed after the geth-quarian war ended?”

Kaidan nodded. “Yeah. Once people no longer saw them as enemies, there was a flurry of questions about why people were still shooting up holographic versions of them.”

“How’re they doing?”

“The quarians are getting more platforms up and running. Have to admit, after the end of the war it was a little touch and go, very uncertain.”

Ishtar frowned, letting her fork drop to her plate. “What? What do you mean, it was uncertain? What happened? Back up here.”

Kaidan ran a hand through his hair, glancing away slightly. When he returned his gaze to Ishtar, he spoke. “When Allison defeated the Reapers, it took out a lot of synthetic tech with it. EDI and the geth went nonfunctional, and it was a long time before we made any kind of progress towards repairing them.

“EDI was first; her quantum core had a backup program and she retained enough consciousness to be able to start self-repair. It took about three months after the end of the war for her to be functional again. We were able to analyse her coding and adapt that for the geth to get them functional as well.”

“So...they’re all okay?”

“Yeah. The quarians are getting more geth programs and platforms running each day. They’re working on an almost exponential rate now; the more geth they’ve got functioning, the more people who can help them, the more geth they can get functional.”

Ishtar paused, grabbing her fork and trailing it through the sauce on her plate. Kaidan returned to his own meal, and Ishtar leaned her head against a closed palm. “What about...Grunt, how’s he doing?”

Kaidan let out a low, amused chuckle, a smile on his face. “Grunt’s been very well integrated into Clan Urdnot now -- it helps to mention his role in the Reaper War to any dissidents. Wrex has also been enjoying needling Grunt about Allison’s pregnancy, continually making mention of Grunt’s upcoming human half-sibling.”

Ishtar split a small smile at that, wondering. _What would my Grunt be like with my own kids? I’d be the shittiest parent ever, but Garrus would be a great dad_

“Wrex doesn’t have much room to judge, really.” Kaidan’s grin grew wider. “Seeing as Wrex stated that Allison was part of Clan Urdnot herself thanks to her role in Grunt’s initiation? That makes our kid his niece, and his own kids our daughter’s cousins.”

“Kids? Plural?”

“Two so far. Bakara’s been working closely to keep check on the krogan’s population with Wrex helping her. There’s Mordin, their daughter who was born a few weeks after the war ended, and Shepard, their son, who was born about four months ago.”

Ishtar frowned. “Just two? I thought krogan had clutches of kids at a time.”

Kaidan sighed, finishing off the last of his ossobuco. “Something Mordin did, we think. We don’t know for certain, but after the genophage cure was spread, krogan birth rates began to change. Now they’re more like humans -- one baby at a time most commonly, but with the same hatching rate as before.” Kaidan placed his fork on the plate before continuing. “It’s the best of both, if we’re to be completely honest. With pre-genophage reproduction rates, even with careful controls in place there would have been some kind of blowback about it.”

Ishtar frowned. “So you regret curing the genophage?”

Kaidan snorted. “No. Well, it wasn’t my decision to make -- I was in Huerta when the whole business went down. I only heard about it afterwards when I was back on the _Normandy_. But I stand by Allison about it -- often she can see situations and potential outcomes than even the best of us can’t.”

“Hmm.” Ishtar sipped at her drink. The table descended into silence again, Ishtar not having any topic to discuss and Kaidan evidently having trouble thinking of subjects to fill the silence with. One of the waitstaff came and took their plates away, querying about the dessert menu, but both Kaidan and Ishtar declined.

“So,” Kaidan finally said. “What happened on the Presidium with you and Allison?”

“We were shopping.”

“I didn’t mean that. The Cerberus attack.”

“Ask Garrus.”

“You’re surprisingly stubborn to get an answer from.”

Ishtar hid the hint of a smirk. “What can I say? Cerberus agent there, attacked him, went down pretty each with the help of a knife.”

Kaidan leaned back, looking confused. “A knife? Where’d you get that from?” Ishtar smiled sweetly at him, and he sighed and shook his head. “I probably don’t want to know.” Kaidan shifted back and leaned over the table slightly, activating his omni-tool and tapping in a few commands. Once done, he shut down his omni-tool and stood up.

“Come on,” he said. “As much as they like having the publicity that comes with having the second human Spectre in their restaurant, management still doesn’t like anyone blocking up tables.”

 

[ - ]

 

Allison slowly opened her eyes, taking in a languid look at her surroundings. Within an eye blink she was up and alert, scanning around and sectioning off anything that seemed unusual. Her omni-tool that she’d left on the bedside table was flashing, and she slipped it on her wrist before activating it. After flicking away the expected spam, she was left with two quick messages, both from Kaidan.

_Timestamp: 1536 Zulu_

_Hey Allison,_

_Sorry I had to disappear, apparently Ishtar and Garrus got into a fight. Am at the arena, hoping Ishtar will calm down once the battle’s over._

_Love you,_

_-_

_Timestamp: 1617 Zulu_

_Hey Allison,_

_Stopped off for lunch at Serendipity with Ishtar. She didn’t kill me, so I’m assuming talk went well. See you in a bit._

_Love you,_

Allison let out a sigh of relief, slipping out from under the covers. Despite the apartment having an excellent and very carefully controlled temperature system, goosebumps still prickled along her arms. She walked across the room and grabbed her N7 jacket back from where she’d slung it, slipping it on quickly. She smoothed out the wrinkles, pausing a little longer than necessary over her stomach. Grabbing her shoes as well, she slipped them on and smoothed her hair down before walking out of the bedroom.

Allison jogged down the stairs carefully, glad that Kaidan wasn’t around for once. He’d given her hell time and time again for not walking down the stairs, especially given that she was pregnant. She’d turned and said she was a biotic and could catch herself if she fell; Kaidan had spluttered and protested that that wasn’t the _point_. Allison had relented and almost made a show of walking carefully down the stairs when Kaidan was there.

She rounded the corner and frowned when she saw Garrus sitting casually on the sofa. A quick glance over and she saw the scar on his neck, confirming him to be Ishtar’s Garrus ( _we really need a way of distinguishing them_ ). He didn’t seem to notice her, having his omni-tool active and tapping away with his talons. Allison stood behind him for a moment, watching him work -- there was no way he couldn’t have noticed her, but he made no move to indicate that he had. Rather than startling him, she walked around, making sure she put a little effort into making noise as she moved.

“Where’s the other Garrus? Our Garrus. Er, I mean --”

“He stepped out to make a call.” Garrus didn’t look up from his omni-tool, and from her angle Allison couldn’t see what he was doing. “Quite a while ago.”

“Oh.” Allison’s mind flicked through who he could have potentially called, then she smiled as she got her answer. “He’s probably talking to Tali -- he’ll be out there for a while, I expect.”

“Your Garrus that much of a talker?” Garrus turned his omni-tool off.

“Nah.” Allison moved around to sit on the sofa, choosing a section as far away from Garrus as she could manage. “The relay network is still a little patchy in places -- the primary network, anyway. Around Council Space it’s all functioning as you’d expect, but out around the Terminus Systems and the border of the Traverse, it’s more patchy. If you’ve got business out there, a lot of people are still relying on vid-calls rather than relay jumps.”

“Are the jumps dangerous?” Garrus asked, narrowing his eyes slightly at Allison.

“Not overly. It’s more...say you’re heading over to the Perseus Veil. The primary relay from the Far Rim may not function properly -- it may not receive your message, or it may respond that it received them but do nothing about it. You’d then use the secondary relay system normally, but if some place doesn’t have a known secondary relay system, well...you’re stuck waiting until the primary is back online.”

“And let me guess, the Perseus Veil doesn’t have a known secondary system.”

“Indeed. And between Garrus’ work here on the Citadel and Tali’s work as an Admiral with the Flotilla, they’ve got even less time to talk than the average person. So, when they do manage to contact each other, their talks can last for a long while.”

Allison fiddled with the zip on her hoodie a little once she stopped talking; Garrus made no move to fill the silence with any other discussion points. She ran her hands down again, brushing over her stomach before she rested them at her side.

“So...how the hell does Ishtar get anything done?” Garrus turned to look at Allison, mandibles tucked in and eyes widened. She sighed and continued on. “Ishtar’s a little...abrasive.”

“That’s putting it kindly. If this situation were reversed, she’d be calling you a stuck-up priss princess.”

Allison raised an eyebrow at that. “All I’ve seen Ishtar do is curse people and things out, fight, and generally cause chaos. I don’t know about her, but I’m pretty used to the strict rules and regulations of the Alliance -- Ishtar doesn’t seem like she’d fit into that at all.”

“Your parents were both in the Navy, weren’t they?”

“Yeah. I guess being a Navy brat would instill a healthy respect for the chain of command from a young age.” Allison shifted in her seat, pulling her knees up and wrapping her arms around them. “But still...”

“Ishtar’s not usually like this.”

“Coulda fooled me.”

“Yes, she swears and curses a lot but she can get things done when she needs to.” Garrus let out a sigh. “This whole situation has thrown her for a loop and she’s reacting how she knows. She’s defensive and aggressive because that’s what being on the streets taught her, and that’s what kept her alive. Now? She’s almost paranoid about something happening, and especially without people she knows around she’s continually on the defensive.” Garrus levelled Allison with a steady look. “What do you know of life on Earth for some kids? Not like how Alenko grew up, but the more unsavoury parts of the planet.”

“Nothing,” Allison said blandly. “The living situation of some kids back on Earth doesn’t really factor into our education.”

Garrus leaned back on the sofa and closed his eyes. He stayed still for a moment before speaking. “Ishtar was an orphan, a street kid, ran with a gang. She learned to rely on herself and _only_ herself. If you were in pain or injured, it was only another thing that someone could use against you, take advantage of you. She’s seen people she knew die from stupid things, others die from gang attacks. She built up a wall to defend herself, lock out anyone who might see who she truly was.

“She got out of there, signed up with the Alliance. Started building up something for herself but still kept that wall up because that was all she’d learned. Over time she started to let the wall back down, started to relax a little. Got to know her fellow soldiers, stopped putting on the front that she’d learned on the streets so much. Then her platoon got dropped to Akuze.

“I’m sure you know how the story goes. Fifty marines, one survivor. In our case, Ishtar made it through with a mix of sheer luck and a sixth sense she’d cultivated on Earth telling her something was wrong. Toombs also survived, but she didn’t know it then.” Garrus opened his eyes and looked over at Allison. “You, on the other hand? You’ve had a charmed life and you’re not aware of it. Doubly so when you contrast your life with Ishtar’s.”

Allison scowled. “I can’t help what happened to me. My life hasn’t exactly been picture perfect.”

“Maybe not, but it makes Ishtar feel inadequate here. You’ve had the perfect childhood, perfect military record, and I’m sitting here noticing a distinct lack of Reapers. In our universe, we’re still fighting them.”

Allison looked at Garrus in shock. “Still fighting them? But it’s 2190...”

“Not in our universe. There it’s still 2186.”

“So...” Allison leaned back a little suddenly, a sigh escaping her lips. “Whatever brought you here also brought you forward in time.”

Garrus nodded. “We’d already figured that out. It’s a little obvious when the statue of you in the Presidium makes mention of a year we’re not even in yet.” Garrus flared his mandibles slowly. “Ishtar’s very rough, and I’ll be the first one to state that she has a very strong personality. She keeps herself hidden away, but if you can gain her loyalty and protection? You’ll have it _undivided_. If Ishtar needed to march into hell and shoot the devil himself in the face to help any of her crew, she would. Everyone in her crew knows that, and that’s why we follow her.”

 

[ - ]

 

Ishtar flicked from person to person, studying them and classifying them into risk levels. So far, none had even come close to even looking like a threat, allowing her to relax a small amount. She and Kaidan were sitting on one of the benches of the strip, distant enough to easily avoid accidental touching, but still close enough to indicate to passers-by that they knew each other.

They’d stopped by the ice-cream place Kaidan had mentioned earlier; once again, Kaidan had made no comment on the amount of food Ishtar had ordered, simply handing over a credit chit as payment. She supposed that both him and Allison being biotics, he was probably used to how much Allison could eat (and Ishtar had seen plenty of evidence on that front) to not really be surprised.

Ishtar quickly finished off her ice cream cone, wiping a thumb across her lips and resuming her study of the people around her. Beside her, Kaidan also finished up his ice cream and Ishtar moved position on the bench, drawing one leg up and casually hooking an arm around it.

“So, Alenko, how the fuck’d you become a Spectre?”

She watched as Kaidan spluttered a little, and hoped that he was glad she’d waited until _after_ they’d both finished eating to ask the question.

“Udina offered me the post when I was in Huerta after Mars. I didn’t know what to think at first, but he kept leaning on me for an answer, and I got the impression that ‘no’ wasn’t on the cards.” Kaidan sighed. “When Cerberus started their attack and Udina his coup, I was personally chosen to keep the Council safe. It meant that Allison and I were staring each other down the barrel of our guns.”

“Well, you’re both here so shit must have gotten better real quickly.”

Kaidan fell silent, turning his gaze away from Ishtar and staring out into the crowds. Ishtar waited with impatience for him to turn around and continue talking, but as the seconds ticked by he refused to turn around. Ishtar huffed to herself, folding her arms across her chest.

“You know, I preferred it when you were trying to get into my pants to this broody stuff you’re doing. At least back then I could hit you.”

Kaidan’s head snapped back around as soon as Ishtar had stopped speaking, a spark of anger in his eyes. Ishtar grinned to herself at that, her grin fading as she caught sight of a faint flicker in the air, this one a lot larger than the one she’d seen previously.

“Stay here,” Ishtar said before standing up. She strode over, not so gently pushing past some people, and stared at the shimmer. After a few seconds she sensed someone behind her, scowling when she saw it was Kaidan.

“You’re forgetting I’m a Spectre. A legal one.”

Ishtar made a noise of dissent. “Yeah, but you’re gonna be a dad. This time, I won’t let anything explode. Promise.”

Kaidan raised an eyebrow. “ _This_ time?”

Ishtar made a motion for him to shut up; he glared at her but thankfully obeyed, folding his arms across his chest as Ishtar looked over at the shimmer.

“Yeah, this is the same as what Allison and I saw on the Presidium.”

Kaidan shook his head. “Am I ever going to get the full story of what happened out of either of you?”

Ishtar grinned, showing off a little more teeth than necessary. “Probably not.” Ishtar circled around the shimmer, checking it over visually but seeing nothing of interest occurring. From the prior experience with the exploding one on the Presidium, Ishtar hung back just in case proximity caused the last one to detonate.

Ishtar took a step back. Whatever this shimmer was, it didn’t seem dangerous. She glanced back at Kaidan and jerked her head away from it, back towards Tiberius Tower. They’d barely made it four steps when a ground-shattering _boom_ sounded out.

Acting on instinct, Ishtar whipped around, face taut. “Get outta here! Go! Grab your kids and _leave_. Spectre authority!”

Ishtar fumbled for a gun, cursing when she remembered she was in civilian wear and didn’t have one. Instead, she activated her tactical cloak and dashed over to cover, whirling between various panicking people. She skidded to a halt behind a concrete construction and peered out. As before, white smoke obscured the whole area; confident that nothing dangerous would be appearing just yet, she scanned around the area for Kaidan.

Her eyes fell on him just as he mouthed one word and began to scramble back towards Tiberius Tower. It took a couple of seconds for Ishtar’s brain to catch up and read what he’d said.

 _Allison_.

 

[ - ]

 

“Garrus! Get back!”

Allison’s order came a split-second too late as the one of the windows shattered, shards of glass flying everywhere. With no weapon, Garrus was still on high alert, eyes flicking between the targets that were appearing.

 _Cerberus_.

Allison backpedaled to the stairs, hurrying up them three at a time. She and Kaidan kept all their weapons and armour in a safe room beside the bedroom; locked and hidden away under normal circumstances, an age away when under attack.

Another window shattered and Allison held back a yelp. She turned around, halfway up the stairs, and glanced over the situation. Another trooper was flying into the apartment; acting on instinct, Allison flared blue and in a split-second had covered the distance between the stairs and the trooper. She slammed into him just as he was getting his bearings inside the apartment, soon finding himself spiralling down towards the ground numerous meters below.

“Garrus!”

Allison scrambled back to the stairs; she didn’t look around to see where Garrus was, didn’t check the sounds of a scuffle she found, just kept her head down and ran. She hit the stairs again, managing to get up the entire flight before something else drew her attention. She dashed into the bedroom, slammed her palm against the weapons room, and all but tugged at the door to get it to open faster.

Allison took no care keeping everything in order; she grabbed a pistol and an SMG, shoving both of them into the waistband of her jeans. A shotgun stayed in her hands, and she grabbed as many spare thermal clips as she could manage. She shoved a fresh thermal clip into the shotgun and turned back around.

She dashed back onto the landing, scanning around. Garrus was in hand-to-hand combat with one trooper, his attacks and punches doing very little against the armour. Allison raised her shotgun, checking down the sight, and let two shots out. A second trooper fell to the floor, blood flowing freely.

Allison dashed down the staircase, reaching the quarter landing of the stairs. One hand still holding onto the shotgun, she grabbed the railing with the other and jumped over, landing heavily. She dashed over to Garrus as he sliced through the neck of the trooper, turning to look at Allison before the body had even dropped to the floor.

“Here,” Allison said, shoving the shotgun into his hands. “Not your usual weapon, I know, but...”

“Given the situation, we can’t be picky.”

Allison nodded, grabbing the heavy pistol she’d shoved into the waistband of her jeans, managing to spare a few seconds to look around the room. She sighed as she saw the glass, blood, and bodies littering the room, and ran a quick hand over her eyes. “I know Kaidan mentioned about redecorating, but this is ridiculous.” She turned to Garrus, snapping immediately back into who she needed to be in such a situation. “Come on. We need to move.”

 

[ - ]

 

“Alenko! _Hey, Alenko!_ Fuck...” Ishtar tried to push her way through the crowds, but Kaidan had three advantages on her: height, weight, and the fact that people fucking knew who he was and got out of his way. Standing in between a barrelling Spectre and whatever his target would be was not something people would do.

Thankfully, people had started moving after the explosion, a trail of skycars fleeing the scene, rear red lights making them look like little scampering bugs, a sight Ishtar may have found amusing if not for the scene behind her.

“Fucking hell, Alenko, will you slow down?!”

Ishtar was way beyond caring who heard her, and from the looks on peoples’ faces they were beyond thinking about reprimanding her for use of language around minors. Much bigger things to worry about that their kid suddenly picking up an affinity for the word ‘fuck’.

Ishtar tried to speed up, dodging through the remaining crowds as best as she could. They were all heading in the same direction, but Alenko moving a lot faster than anyone else. Ishtar narrowly avoided crashing into someone, mentally sneering at the glare they levelled in her direction.

_Fuck that. I need to get to Alenko quickly._

Ishtar caught sight of a familiar face, and a relieved smile appeared on her face a half-second before her brain caught up. This Garrus didn’t have a scar on his neck.

“Alenko.”

Ishtar had to strain to hear what Garrus was saying, but at the sound of his name Alenko stopped and looked over at Garrus. Ishtar took her chance -- she moved forwards again and grabbed Alenko’s arm, spinning him around to look at her.

He instantly glowed blue, fists raised and a calm look on his face. His eyes said otherwise -- tinted blue from biotics, they were flicking anywhere and everywhere, wide and filled with fear.

“I’m with you,” Ishtar said, squaring her shoulders and looking up at Kaidan determinedly. She glanced over at Garrus, who nodded slightly at her. “Let’s move, Alenko.”

Alenko relaxed slightly, but he still glowed blue. With three of them, two of whom were very well known to anyone who paid attention to news or interacted with C-Sec more than never, they were able to force their way through the crowds a lot easier. They hit Tiberius Tower reasonably quickly, Alenko activating his omni-tool to go through the security systems.

Alenko got the second set of doors open and had started to dash through them when two people ran towards them. Ishtar heard the crackling of biotics intersecting and swung around. Allison blinked a couple of times, her brain taking a few seconds to catch up and recognise who she’d run into. In an instant, her panicked expression disappeared; Alenko likewise relaxed, wrapping his arms around Allison and pulling her close.

“What now?” The Garrus next to Ishtar said, looking over the scene in front of them.

Concern flickered on Allison’s face, and she pulled back. “Kaidan...Cerberus, they tried attacking the apartment. Garrus and I managed to grab some weapons and deal with a couple, but...”

Alenko’s expression grew dark, and he pulled away from Allison. Only then did he seem to notice the weapons in her waistband and in her hand. In a second, he took the pistol from her hand; as she reached for the SMG, Alenko grabbed that too. He turned to look at Ishtar, all but shoving the SMG into her hands.

“Kaidan--”

“Allison. No. I’m not letting you fight.” Alenko looked her up and down. “Thermal clips.”

Allison pulled them out of her hoodie and handed them to Alenko before glaring at him, bunching up her fists. “Like hell--”

“ _Allison_.” Alenko grabbed one of Allison’s hands in his free one, holding it tightly. “I want you out of danger.”

“I’m _not_ just walking away while you’re fighting! If you think--”

“It wasn’t a request.” Alenko dropped Allison’s hand and turned his back on her. After a second, he glanced over his shoulder at Allison. “Get a skycar. Head to the Spectre offices. Anyone will have trouble getting to you there.” Alenko swept his gaze across Istar, settling on Garrus. “Take Garrus with you. C-Sec’ll probably want him investigating anyway.”

“I--”

“Allison. You’re putting more than yourself in danger.”

Allison blinked rapidly, Ishtar noting a sheen of tears in her eyes; Ishtar snorted to herself, shaking her head slightly. _Sure, Garrus and I don’t like it when the other’s in danger, but we don’t_ cry _about it!_

Allison backed up, not tearing her eyes away from Alenko as she did so. Good thing the area was pretty clear or she would have risked running into someone.

“Damn you, Kaidan.” Allison’s voice was barely more than a whisper and she turned to move. Just before she did, she made eye contact with Alenko again. “Love you.”

Alenko smiled a small smile. “Love you too. Now get out of here!”

Allison turned and ran, Garrus following her, and Alenko returned his attention to the rest of the group. He gestured for them to move and they did so, weapons raised as they stalked out of the reception area.

Alenko watched as a skycar lifted off and zoomed away; there was no way anyone could tell for certain, but Ishtar knew that that was the skycar Allison and Garrus had moved away on.

“Come on,” Ishtar said, shoving him none-too-gently in the back. “Let’s get rid of these assholes and reunite you with your girlfriend.”

Alenko nodded at her and turned his attention back to the Strip. Cerberus had made steady progress towards them, well in range of a sniper rifle if any of them had one.

 _Fucking Allison and her inability to carry one_. Ishtar slid into cover, readying the SMG as she glanced over. She caught a flash of blue out of the corner of her eye and saw Alenko stand up out of cover for a split-second, glowing blue. A ball of energy shot out towards one of the Cerberus troopers; he writhed in agony as tendrils of blue flowed right back to Alenko.

“Huh. Now that’s new.”

Alenko had a grim smile on his face as he returned to cover. He focused his tinted blue eyes on Ishtar. “Reave.”

“That’s...not one I know.”

Alenko glanced back up, firing off some shots of his pistol. The trooper that was screaming was quickly silenced as multiple bullets tore through him. Garrus, on another section of the battlefield, slowly but surely cut through some troopers with steady booming shots.

Ishtar decided to let that drop and checked over the shots left. A full load, thirty six. _Fucking hell, does Allison adopt a spray and pray method?_ Ishtar glanced over her cover, seeing a trooper moving to her two. She stood up, nailing the trooper with a flurry of headshots that should have made Garrus proud. The trooper staggered for a bit and Ishtar let loose another six-shot round.

Before she ducked back into cover, she had an opportunity to glance around the battlefield. Not many troopers, but enough to be trouble if they tried. Ishtar shoved the SMG into the waistband of her trousers, slipping the knife from her boot instead. In an instant, her cloak shimmered and wrapped around her, shielding her from visible view. She jumped over the cover, holding the knife steady in her hand; creeping around the edge of the troopers’ range of movement, she grabbed a trooper. Ishtar pulled him forwards quickly, plunging the knife into his neck. Blood spurted as she pulled it back out, and dashed back to cover before her cloak dissipated.

Ishtar wiped the blood from the blade onto her sleeve, slipping it back into her boot. She grabbed the SMG again, slipping in a disruptor ammo chit. Looking over her cover, Ishtar noted some of the troopers that were shielded; she caught gazes with Garrus and he nodded at her, starting up his omni tool.

Ishtar shot a couple of troopers, the special armour wreaking havok with their shields. Garrus’ overload took care of the rest, leaving them open prey.

Alenko moved from cover to cover, never staying in the same place for long. Blue-tinted eyes scanned the battlefield, finding the best positions to attack from. Garrus hung back, alternating between setting more shields to overload whenever troopers reloaded them, setting down proximity mines where he could, and firing shots from his shotgun.

Alenko dashed forwards, biotic blue glow disappearing and being replaced by an orange glow. Tech armour appeared over his torso, arms, and head as he surged forwards, and twin glows appeared on his wrists. He surged towards the nearest trooper, twin omni-blades appearing, one on each wrist. Within seconds, the trooper has two slashes across his chest, another across his neck, managing to cut through even the Cerberus armour with his attack. Not wasting a moment, he moved over to the next trooper, and a third. A flash of orange later and his tech armour detonated; before any of the troopers could recover, Alenko’s biotic glow had reappeared and he turned his biotic attack on yet another trooper.

 

 

[ - ]

 

“Fuck! Vega, keep ‘em busy!” Kate checked over her pistol, slotting in a new thermal clip. Her omni-tool sprung to life and she typed in a shortcut command, a combat drone appearing next to her and instantly zooming off towards a nearby trooper. While he was busy trying to fend off the drone, Kate leaned out from cover and positioned in for a headshot. One quick trigger-pull later, he was down on the ground and dead.

A haze of blue filled the air next to another trooper, him being swirled up in the zee gee of a singularity. _Keep it up, T’soni!_ Kate leaned over and aimed another shot, the trooper going limp in the swirl of gravity manipulation. She ejected the spent clip and slotted another one in, checking the IFF on her HUD. Still five more troopers nearby. Shit.

Kate brushed her black hair out of her eyes and scanned around. Another trooper was making his way towards them, and she took aim. Before she could pull the trigger the trooper disappeared.

“Shit! T’Soni! Vega! Keep alert, we’ve got a cloaker!” Kate turned back to her HUD, now seeing four -- three -- blips on the scanner. “T’Soni! Status! What the hell’s going on out there?”

“I don’t know, Shepard.” Two blips on the scanner. “They’re just disappearing.” One blip.

Kate gritted her teeth; she ran out of cover, calling up another drone. It flew over to the last remaining trooper and Kate managed to get two shots to the torso before he too could disappear.

“Come on. We need to keep going. We need to get to the Council.”


	5. Chapter Five

Chapter Five:

 

The skycar landed at the Presidium Commons; security purposes (and the fact that it was all indoors) negated any kind of rapid transport system anywhere near the Embassies. Before Sovereign’s attack it had been wider, open to the air more; afterwards, it had been moved up and sectioned off with a lot more security in place.

Allison was out and running before the skycar doors had even fully opened, dashing towards the elevator. With a quick glance over her shoulder she could see Garrus keeping pace with her; still, she readied her biotics and her corona flared across her as a warning. Hardly anyone was around, but Allison wasn’t feeling like taking a chance.

In the elevator, Allison mashed the button for the Embassies, only relaxing when the doors slid closed and the carriage began to move upwards.

“You never make things nice, easy, and quiet, do you Shepard?”

Allison smiled briefly and let out a short puff of air. “You know me, Garrus. I hate the peace and quiet.”

“True, but I think Kaidan would appreciate a day where nothing explodes or gets blown up or you end up with an alternate you hunting you down.”

“Hey, _she’s_ not hunting me down.” Allison folded her arms across her chest and looked at Garrus. “It’s not my fault her arrival seemed to coincide with Cerberus’ revival.” Allison paused, thinking for a bit. “Should we really be calling them Cerberus still? What about Hydra. Phoenix? Giant pain in my ass that never seems to die?”

The elevator _dinged_ lightly and the doors swept open. Allison glanced around, noting the Embassy floor to be unusually quiet. No people were scattered around, and only one lone receptionist was present at the desk. Allison moved through the room, eyes never stopping to scan anything for too long.

“C-Sec should have been alerted. The way some people on the Strip act, they’ve got C-Sec programmed in as their number one contact.”

“Yeah, I know how that is,” Allison muttered, mainly to herself. She glanced up the stairs as the door to the C-Sec office opened. A woman hurried out, clad in C-Sec uniform and with her short dark hair pinned back in numerous places. She was halfway down the stairs before she saw Allison and Garrus in front of her.

“Shepard? What are you doing here?”

 _Running away._ “Attack on Silversun Strip. We just got away from there, seems to be another Cerberus attack.”

The woman nodded. “We know. We’re scrambling a lot of C-Sec agents to go and deal with the situation. I just set out a squad to go and intercept Cerberus.”

Allison nodded. “Good. Alenko’s there as well, leading a small group of people.” Allison’s eyes slid across to Garrus; if C-Sec saw Not-Garrus there, questions would be asked...but ones that could be answered later.

The other woman’s eyes narrowed slightly; she continued down the rest of the stairs, stopping just shy of Allison. She put a hand on Allison’s shoulder and leaned in slightly, smiling what Allison hoped was intended to be a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep you briefed about the situation.”

Allison smiled shortly. “Thanks.” As the C-Sec agent pulled away and headed for the elevator, Allison inclined her head up the stairs. “Come on. At the very least we’ll be able to buy some new weapons -- heaven knows what I’ll do with a new sniper rifle after this is all over.”

“Give it to your best turian friend? I hear he’s got a birthday coming up soon.” Allison looked over at Garrus. She hadn’t quite gotten all turian expressions down pat, but she was sure Garrus was joking.

Pretty sure, at any rate.

They moved up the stairs quickly, bypassing the C-Sec offices. Allison stopped by the access panel next to the Spectre offices, starting up her omni-tool and scanning it across the panel.

“Spectre status recognised.”

“Come on,” Allison said as the door opened. “I can get you in, but it’ll have to be quick.”

Garrus moved in first, Allison following close behind. As the doors closed behind them, she turned and tapped in a few commands on her omni-tool; seconds later, the lock turned red.

“High-level lock,” Allison said by way of explanation. “Access panel will stop anyone who doesn’t have Spectre codes; locking software will keep the rest out.”

“And if any Spectres want to try and retrieve some equipment, or access their terminals?”

Allison moved further down the corridor, seemingly ignoring Garrus’ question. She maneuvered into a low-slung squishy chair and pulled her legs up. “If any Spectres are on the Citadel, odds are they’re being scrambled for security positions.”

“Except you.”

Allison sighed. “Except me.”

 

[ - ]

 

More Cerberus troops were pouring in, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. Ishtar had all but abandoned the SMG in favour of stealth attacks with her knife and coordinating grenade attacks with Garrus. Alenko seemed to keep up a relentless barrage of biotic attacks, trooper after trooper being hit with Reave. One good thing about that Ishtar had noted was that while under the thrall of the biotic attack, the troopers stood nice and still. Perfect target for a gun shot or a sticky grenade.

The last trooper in sight fell to the ground, a combination of a reave attack and a bullet from Garrus. Ishtar waited a few seconds before glancing over her cover; the strip was chaos, blood and dead bodies, but no _alive_ ones coming towards them. Ishtar pulled out the SMG and fired a six-round shot into his head.

“Just making sure,” she said to Alenko’s look. He just shook his head at her and turned away, checking over a few of the bodies. Ishtar shoved the SMG back into her waistband and began to wipe the knife off on her sleeve. She held it tight in her hand but kept the tip pointing groundwards as she walked around.

“So, Cerberus not quite dead in this universe I take it?”

Alenko looked up from where he’d been studying the trooper. The dead trooper had had his nose blown in by a shotgun, and as Ishtar watched Alenko pulled the trooper’s eyelids apart.

“No Reaper tech,” Alenko muttered, mainly to himself. He stood up, shaking his head slightly, and turned to Ishtar. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything he frowned, closed his mouth, and stared at the knife Ishtar was holding. “Is that from my kitchen?”

“Thought the apartment was Allison’s.”

“Fine, Allison’s and my kitchen.”

Ishtar shrugged, trying to look nonchalant. “Hey, lots of people pass through here. Could have been from anywhere.”

Alenko sighed. “I don’t have the energy for this. C-Sec’s likely to be here any minute and they’re going to want to question us in detail.”

Ishtar bit back a grimace and the urge to say something not quite as polite as ‘fuck that shit’. Instead, she slipped the knife back into her boot, making a show of it, and slowly folded her arms across her chest. She let out a low growl as a C-Sec skycar descended into view; landing a short distance away, the agents swiftly moved over to their little rag-tag group.

Alenko hailed them and moved forwards, putting some distance between the group and Ishtar. Whether it was because he didn’t want her overhearing or because he didn’t quite want them to see the person he was with was one who had an arrest warrant out, she didn’t care.

Ishtar leaned against a nearby railing, scanning at the scene in front of her. After a moment, Garrus moved over to join her.

“You know, you’re creating quite a reputation here. We’ve been here for two days and already you’ve been involved in three fights. Are you trying to work to achieve some kind of new record?”

“You know me, Garrus. I always like to test myself, stretch the limits of what I’ve done before.”

Garrus chuckled and shook his head. “We should just be thankful if this place is still intact by the time we get home.”

“Yeah.” Ishtar tore her attention away from Garrus and back to Alenko and the C-Sec agents. He’d managed to keep all the attention on himself, no one noticing the other human and lone turian who looked like one of their work colleagues sitting on the sidelines. After a good few long minutes, Alenko nodded at the lead agent and turned back towards Ishtar and Garrus.

“We’re cleared to go,” Alenko said when he was within earshot. “Come on. We should go and get Allison.”

 

[ - ]

 

Allison had ransacked her locker in the Spectre offices, managing to dig out another couple of weapons. They were far from her usual weapons; spares chucked in just in case her usual ones became damaged or needing parts replaced. She also had some sections of armour chucked in, but between her breasts and her stomach she would have a hard time squeezing into it.

Instead, she and Garrus upended a few empty desks in strategic positions, huddling down behind two of them, checking they were still in eyesight of each other. Garrus took point despite Allison’s protestations that she was a better front-line fighter; she’d relented but not without voicing her complaint when Garrus reminded her she was pregnant. Then followed was a long argument, repeated many times before, before Allison relented and moved behind Garrus. Allison readied her biotics, checking that everything was still all working and also checked over her pistol. She’d had her old Talon and Scorpion shoved in there, and had handed over the Scorpion to Garrus.

Thankfully Allison had had the sense to leave her mods attached, giving her a magazine upgrade and ensuring she got more shots per thermal clip. She was still looking at a much lower capacity than she was used to using, meaning that she had to stay up close and make sure every shot counted.

The lock on the door flashed to green, Allison seeing it out of the corner of her eye. Her grip tightened on the pistol; Garrus stood up out of cover, levelling the Scorpion at the door. Seconds later, the lock cycled through and opened. Allison exchanged a glance with Garrus before letting off a shockwave. It quickly pulsed in front of her, skipping along until it hit the open door with a blast. Two figures were knocked out of the way, slamming against the far wall.

Garrus moved forwards, and Allison moved to flank him. They both kept their guns drawn, Allison pointing down to the person on the left, Garrus the one on the right.

“I hate biotics,” Ishtar said as she glowered up at Allison. Allison holstered her gun and held a hand out for Ishtar; Ishtar batted it away with a harsh slap and got to her feet under her own power. “The fuck was that?”

“Shockwave,” Allison answered, glancing around. Kaidan had grabbed Garrus’ hand to pull himself up, and a short distance away Ishtar’s Garrus was watching the whole situation. Allison fixed her attention on Kaidan who stepped close to her, grabbing one of her hands and entwining his fingers with her. “You broke through the lock?”

“Yeah. Didn’t expect you to shoot before you saw who it was.”

Allison tore her hand from Kaidan’s grip, folding her arms across her chest and glaring at him. “Citadel under attack and you _don’t_ expect my to blast anyone and everyone who might come through the door?”

“I was just hoping you’d check first. Thankfully your shockwave is more crowd control than anything.”

“Hey, that shockwave got me through masses of husks at that dead Reaper, it’s _much_ better than --”

Ishtar slid in between Allison and Kaidan, not so gently pushing them apart. “Can we save the pre-sex argument for a later time? Like when I’m not around?”

Allison backed off, starting to form a comment saying that they weren’t arguing, but dropped it. Instead, she turned back to Kaidan. “Everything got cleaned up at the Strip?”

“Yeah,” Ishtar said. “Hell of a lot of dead bodies though.Troopers kept on coming out of nowhere.”

“C-Sec responded and I gave them a statement,” Kaidan added. “They’re still there securing the site and doing clean-up.”

“Which means a hell of a long time before we can get back to the apartment. Great.” Allison closed her eyes and sighed. “What now?”

Kaidan hesitated, running a hand through his hair. “Now...I report for Spectre duty. This whole mess has got everyone on edge, and I need to investigate why Cerberus is attacking the Citadel again and where they got their resources.”

“Spectre...” Allison’s eyes grew wide. “You’re _leaving_?”

“Kinda has to,” Ishtar said. “Can’t exactly save the galaxy working from your living room.”

“I’ve already called it in,” Kaidan said, loading up his omni-tool and scanning through. “I’ll be leaving in about three hours; Urdnot Narex, Urdnot Karag, Metis, and Kharrium will be coming to guard you.”

Allison gritted her teeth at that. “And our residency?”

“I’ve arranged temporary housing. Not as big as the apartment, but sizable. Enough for seven people, two of whom don’t sleep.”

Allison resisted the urge to clench her fists, tempered down the rush of biotics that was burning along her nerves. She felt a faint flicker through her body, and with Kaidan’s slow, heavy sigh, she knew he’d seen her eyes flash blue momentarily.

“Allison...” Kaidan stepped forwards, grabbing her hands in his. He lowered his voice, moving his head closer to hers. “I know. I’m not liking this any more than you, but we have personal experience with Cerberus and with you...out of the picture, I’m the best one to help with this.”

Allison let out a sigh, dropping her head and closing her eyes. “You’re not the one who has trouble dealing with staying in one place.”

“I know.” Kaidan pulled her forwards a little, placing a chaste kiss on her forehead. “Stay safe.”

Kaidan dropped Allison’s hands and moved away. Allison took a breath, attempting to steady her emotions. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Kaidan gave her a small smile. “I should get ready. C-Sec’s allowed for you to go back to our apartment and pick up some stuff. Essentials, mostly; don’t try and haul everything out of there.”

Allison huffed in amusement. “I’ve lived on ships, Kaidan. Most of my things can fit in a single sea bag.”

Kaidan leaned forwards and kissed Allison again. “I’ll be back soon. I promise.”

 

[ - ]

 

Ishtar was thankful that the scant few minutes the C-Sec guards let them in for was more than long enough to grab what Allison had bought her. Garrus practically lived in his armour and Ishtar hadn’t heard of Kaidan getting him anything, so she did a quick sweep around ‘their’ bedroom to pick up things. The kitchen knife stayed securely in her boot -- no way was she giving _that_ up -- and everything else was shoved into a spare seabag Allison had.

To her credit, Allison herself ventured out of the apartment with only one seabag herself, not even bulging like it had been stuffed to its limits. She’d given one backwards look at the apartment as they left, and a stifled sigh that Ishtar reckoned Allison had hoped no one else overheard.

The temporary housing was also on the Citadel, right at the top of Zakera Ward and close to a large number of restaurants and clubs -- much busier than Silversun Strip, and that was saying something. Between time and the rebuild due to Sovereign, practically nothing was familiar; none of the clubs were ones that Ishtar recognised, and even when she thought she saw Doctor Michel’s old clinic, she was mistaken.

They found the temporary housing, C-Sec posting guards outside already. Allison scanned through fine, escorting Ishtar in under the promise that she wasn’t dangerous.

 _Well, not dangerous to_ Allison _..._

The krogan and geth bodyguards were already positioned in the apartment as Ishtar and Allison moved in, glancing over Ishtar without a second look. The geth she anticipated because they’d likely calculated her as no threat; the krogan likely because they doubted someone like her could get to Allison before they’d had time to react.

Like her/Allison’s apartment on the Strip, it was a two-storey place, the living room, kitchen, and one bathroom squeezed in on the main floor, the two bedrooms on the upper floor with an additional, slightly larger bathroom. Allison made her excuses and headed up to the main bedroom, taking her items with her. Ishtar was pointed to the second bedroom, and she sent a quick mail to Garrus saying that everything was clear and he could make his way up.

By the time Garrus had arrived, one of the geth had moved to stand guard outside of Allison’s bedroom door, and Ishtar had already scoped out most of the place for good holdout positions and makeshift sniper’s nests.

“Having fun?” Garrus said. The sound of his voice put him at a short distance away, but more than close enough to see Ishtar on her hands and knees, ass in the air as she checked out the structure of the perimeter wall.

“This thing is shit,” Ishtar said as she stood up, wiping away dust on her trousers. “One solid explosion can tear through this place. Got someone in the next apartment? _Boom_.”

Garrus looked thoughtful as he scanned around the area himself. “I do have some plans for nonlethal traps I could utilise...”

“No. No traps.” Both Garrus and Ishtar turned to the main bedroom doorway, seeing Allison in sleepwear with mussed hair. “You can -- fuck, I don’t really care at this point. Go for it. Whatever you want. Just... _no_ bombs.”

Ishtar gave a mock-salute.

 

[ - ]:

 

_A hulking beast, teeth like a thousand micro blades. Glowering eyes, deep yellow amongst the blackness. A flash of blue, distance covered in seconds. Eyes blinking, turning black in a second. A thundering screech, a blast of red. Faces blurring into each other. Faces normally recognisable, distorted into horror._

_A face of fear, regret, resignation. Looking down the barrel of a gun. One twitch, one shot, everything changes. Endless regret, emotional distance. An unmarked grave changing, spinning into the sight of stars, no other celestial bodies within sight._

_Alone. A hand, reaching out, grasping. Disappearing into space, all attempts to fight finding resistance._

_Can’t breathe._

_Panic_

-

Allison’s eyes snapped open and in an instant she was sitting up, one hand reaching for a weapon, the other balled into a fist with a biotic corona flickering around it. She glanced around the unfamiliar room, categorising all the items in it, determining and discarding their use as cover. After some time, her heart rate slowed, breathing evened, and her mind filled in the blanks.

Not kidnapped. Not trapped. Hidden. Kept safe.

Allison moved over to the edge of the bed, swinging her legs over. She held her head in her hands, moving them through her hair a few seconds later. Allison instinctively looked over to the other side of the bed, already anticipating feeling warm hands on her waist, hearing a deep voice asking what was wrong, feeling the light gust of breath and soft lips across the back of her neck.

But the other side of the bed was empty, and would be so for a very long time. With such an open-ended mission as ‘find Cerberus and figure out what they’re doing’, there wasn’t even an estimate on how long it would be before Kaidan could return, and a similar lack of guarantee on when he’d be able to get messages through, if any at all.

Allison placed her hands on her knees, bending forwards and taking in slow, deep breaths. Normally she’d talk through the dreams with Kaidan, him laying there, not speaking but offering murmurs of encouragement, letting her voice the fears and doubts her mind conjured up during the night.

The images still danced around in Allison’s head, laughing and mocking her. She tore her attention away, focusing on the minute details of the room, but when that failed to keep them at bay she slipped off the bed and headed back into the main area of the apartment and towards the bathroom.

 

[ - ]

 

As soon as she heard footsteps padding around, Ishtar was wide awake. Garrus was still asleep, she laying in his arms, but he too flickered awake when she moved. In the darkness of the room she couldn’t discern too many details, but she saw more than enough to pad her way to the door and peek out.

One of the krogan guards -- one with a rust plate who she recalled as Karag -- was dozing beside the sofa, all closed in on himself and head hanging down. The other -- Narex, with a blood red plate reminiscent of Wrex -- was sitting on the sofa facing the main door, staring out.

Metis was still standing guard outside of Allison’s room; as they saw Ishtar they made no comment. Kharrim was nowhere to be currently seen, but Ishtar knew they would be somewhere nearby. The bathroom light was on, the door ajar, and Ishar moved towards it. As she got closer, she could hear the sounds of splashing water; intrigued, she moved forwards and the door opened up more for her.

Allison stood over the sink, splashing water onto her face. The front strands of her hair were soaked through, and as Ishtar watched Allison splashed some more water onto her face, rubbing her hands across frantically. Allison repeated the actions two more times before grabbing for a towel she’d dropped nearby. She scrubbed her face harshly, moving the towel down and finally spotting Ishtar standing by the bathroom door.

“Baby keeping you up?” Ishtar said, crossing her arms and leaning against the doorway. Allison said nothing, just narrowed her eyes at Ishtar and moved around. Allison dropped the towel beside the sink, unplugging it and letting the water drain away. “You just gonna give me the silent treatment?”

“Fuck off, Ishtar.”

Ishtar grinned. “Now that’s the attitude I expected to see from a Reaper-killer. I was beginning to wonder how the fuck you’d ever even managed it.”

Allison moved to glare at Ishtar. Her face was unadorned, the subtle makeup that Ishtar had gotten used to seeing on Allison wiped away. No residue on the towel indicated that Allison had taken it off before her middle of the night trip.

A long scar was visible on Allison’s face, starting from the middle of her forehead and running down her nose, curving across her left cheek and stopping midway between her nose and ear.

_Huh. So Miss Priss does have some scars._

Allison blanched, turning her head away. Ishtar belatedly realised that she’d probably spent more time than considered acceptable looking at the scar. “Get out,” Allison practically snarled, keeping her head turned and gaze focused in a random section of the room.

Ishtar snorted. “The fuck is up, Allison? You all mopey because Alenko’s swaggered off? Come on.” Ishtar unfolded her arms and moved into the bathroom proper. “Fuck, I get it, I don’t like it when Garrus goes off on a high-risk mission on his own, but...hell, Allison, you’re _me_ and I don’t fucking cry in the bathroom when my boyfriend goes away.”

Allison slammed her palms against the side of the sink, the sound echoing off the tiles in the room. A ripple of blue shimmered over Allison’s body, the densest part concentrating around her hands.

“Fuck off, Ishtar. I’m not in the mood to play nice with your bullshit.”

“ _My_ bullshit? Allison, you’re in here acting like a mopey fucking teen from a corny vid.”

Allison turned her glare onto Ishtar, eyes blue with biotics. “You have _no fucking idea_ what’s going on here. You know _nothing_.” Allison tore her gaze away from Ishtar, looking into the mirror. In a split-second, Allison went from pissed off to depressed, and a moment later she pushed away from the sink. She let out a sigh, shoulders sagging, and looked back at Ishtar. Her body language showed defeat, but a spark of anger still lingered in Allison’s green eyes. “You either get out, or I force you out with biotics.”

Ishtar left.

 

[ - ]

 

Allison looked at herself in the mirror without really looking, distancing herself. That wasn’t _her_ she was looking at in the mirror, but a fellow marine, one who’d been caught up in an horrific war and had the scar to prove it. She acted on autopilot as she reapplied her makeup -- she’d packed her bag carefully, grabbing enough clothing to last a few days, toothbrush, hair comb, and makeup. All essentials she’d needed.

Living on ships had drilled into her the belief that if she couldn’t pack it into one bag she didn’t need it, and she’d become both creative and adept at packing as much as she could into one bag. Of course, both the _Normandy_ and her apartment broke both of those roles.

As she applied the foundation, Allison snorted at herself. Before all of... _this_ , when had the last time she’d worn makeup been? Oh, probably well back in eighty-three with the ceremony awarding the Fifth Fleet the Palladium star. A couple of occasions before that, but all of them intertwined some way with Alliance politics. A celebration of the end of the First Contact War, receiving a medal for Elysium. Never make-up while on assignment -- she found it a waste. Pretty up only to use a helmet? Not to mention the effect sweat in a confined space would have on it anyway -- start the day all made up, end it with rivulets streaking down your face. Attractive...

Allison tossed all her makeup back into its bag when she was finished applying it, closing it with a firm _snap_ and finally allowing herself to look into the mirror and see her own face looking back. The scar had been covered up almost artfully, only the barest hint visible and even then you’d need to know it was there and look exceptionally closely. No eyeliner or eyeshadow, the barest touches of blush and lipgloss to avoid her looking washed out.

Just enough makeup to cover the scar and make everything look normal and natural. Allison sighed to herself, letting her gaze fall.

_Here too it’s masquerade, I find._

 

[ - ]

 

Ishtar emerged from her room reasonably late in the morning to see Allison perched on the edge of the sofa, omni-tool loaded up and seemingly paying no attention to anything. Ishtar brushed close by Allison as she made for the tiny kitchen, barely a quarter of the size of the one in the actual apartment.

Every square inch of space seemed to be taken up with shelving and cupboards, including a few right above the fridge. Reachable for tall people like Alenko or the krogan, but impossible for Ishtar to get up to. Instead, Ishtar scavenged through the cupboards she could reach, passing over multitudes of boxes of foods mostly intended to appeal to kids or people with low cooking skills.

“You really eat this stuff?” Ishtar called out over her shoulder; as she expected, she got no response. Ishtar pulled out a box of goldfish crackers and, after a bit more searching, decided that she’d get by with those for breakfast. Ishtar stood up and closed the cupboard door, tearing open the pack and starting to munch on the crackers.

In all the time she’d been searching, Allison hadn’t budged from her position. Karag had moved, pacing slowly around the living room windows, glaring out with one eye and holding a shotgun firmly in both hands. There was no sign of Narex or the two geth, nor Garrus to that matter.

“Seen Garrus?” Ishtar said as she flumped onto the sofa next to Allison. “Want some?” she added, holding the box out to Allison as she munched on a couple more goldfish. Allison didn’t even look at Ishtar to acknowledge her; Allison kept her gaze focused on her omni-tool, fingers the only thing that moved.

Ishtar shuffled a little closer, trying to glance over Allison’s shoulder at what was so intriguing. Ishtar saw a field of hexes, groups of people and the occasional building or marker of something important.

“Do I want to know what you’re wasting your time on?”

“Sol Civ 8,” Allison said. Ishtar mentally cheered at the fact that she had _finally_ gotten Miss Priss to talk. “Only just came out.”

“So...what is it?” Ishtar munched on some more goldfish. “Other than a vid game, I mean.”

“Turn-based strategy game. Based just in the solar system when it was first released, First Contact War turned it into a more galaxy-spanning game.”

“Huh.” Ishtar continued to watch over Allison’s shoulder, but saw nothing more interesting than moving around varying troops, watching as fight animations looped, and hoping that your team was the one that won. After a while Ishtar backed away and finished off the box of crackers.

Ishtar got up from the sofa and chucked the now-empty box of crackers into the reclamation area. She paused, glancing around the tiny apartment again. “So...you seen Garrus?”

“He went out a while ago,” Allison said. She’d returned her focus to her omni-tool. “Kharrium went with him as backup.”

  1. Ishtar glanced over to her bedroom, mentally debating. After a few seconds she moved over to it, dashing in and grabbing her leather jacket. “Any chance of me getting a private walk?”



Allison shrugged as Ishtar slipped her jacket on. “Ask them yourself. You’re probably fine to leave, though. You’re not the one they’re here for.” Allison shifted on the sofa, drawing one leg up to rest underneath her, still tapping away at her omni-tool. After a moment she paused and sighed, turning to look at Karag who had been standing guard at the door the whole time Ishtar had been up and awake. He’d made no comments during their discussion, nor had he even moved -- he was practically a krogan statue, one that was a lot less talkative than Vega had been, especially when they first met. Probably not as much of a dork as Vega -- Ishtar doubted anyone could out-dork the muscled dork.

With Narex still nowhere to be seen -- nor Metis, for that matter -- Ishtar walked up to Karag and kept her gaze focused on him. Karag shifted from looking at her with both eyes to focusing with just his left eye as Ishtar walked up to him.

“I’m heading out,” Ishtar stated. She offered no space for argument, fixing her own gaze with Karag’s. Eventually he relented, stepping away from the door and entering in a code, ensuring his bulk blocked the way so Ishtar couldn’t see.

“Narex will be going with you,” Karag said as the door opened; Ishtar looked out to see that both Narex and Metis had been standing guard outside. Narex turned his head slightly as his name, grumbling as he saw Ishtar standing there.

Ishtar took one last glance over her shoulder at Allison; still no change in where she was or what she was doing. Ishtar shook her head and felt a small twinge of pity as she was lead out into Zakera Ward.


	6. Chapter Six

Chapter Six:

 

Ishtar had no destination in mind as she wandered about Zakera Ward -- she paused by shops that caught her eye, using the slightly reflective windows to keep watch over her shoulder. The majority of the time, however, her view was blocked by a hulking form of a krogan. He always seemed to stay two krogan steps behind her, mirroring her actions as if she was a puppet he was controlling. Narex’s weapons stayed holstered, but within easy reach if anything were to happen.

Not that Ishtar thought anything would -- everyone had been targeting Allison and Alenko, her presence was just a very unhappy coincidence. Still, the fact that it necessitated she have a krogan bodyguard behind her rankled. _She_ wasn’t the one that needed protecting; Narex would have been better off standing at Allison’s side and keeping _her_ safe.

Ishtar passed by a supermarket quickly before pausing. Miss Priss being pregnant and all, she needed better food than the crap that was lining the shelves of the apartment, especially with all the other stuff that seemed to be contributing to her acidic mood. Good food would hopefully bring Allison out of her bitchy mood.

“Hey, Narex. You got credits on you?” Ishtar didn’t even turn to look behind her, knowing that the krogan wouldn’t have wandered off. When a low, grumbly voice answered her, she knew her assumptions were correct.

“Yeah. Alenko gave us credit chits before he left. Said if we needed anything, we could get it.”

Ishtar held her hand out, fixing her gaze on the krogan. After a few seconds Narex grumbled and dug into his pockets, flicking a credit chit towards Ishtar. She deftly caught it, glancing down at it before moving on.

“Come on, we need to get the apartment some proper food, not that crap that’s already there.”

Ishtar turned and moved towards the entrance of the supermarket, not checking to see if Narex was following her. A blast of cool air hit as soon as Ishtar crossed the threshold, and she immediately scanned the local area. She took in the placement of people, their current path and expected destination, and Ishtar turned down to the fruit and veg section.

Ishtar grabbed a random selection of veg, belatedly realising when she had her arms full with five bags that she’d not picked up anything like a shopping trolley; a quick trip back to the entrance resolved that and she continued on. She continued down the veg section, grabbing anything that looked halfway decent, and did the same along the fruit section.

Breads, she tossed in a couple of types; dairy and refrigerated area, milk, yogurts, and some smoothies made with names Ishtar would have trouble pronouncing and decorated with holo devices to grab your attention from halfway across the store. Meats and poultry, Ishtar spent way too long debating between a few packs of steak, finally choosing the better-looking of the four; she bypassed the cereals but ducked into the snack food aisle, picking up a selection of cookies and a box of goldfish crackers. For drinks, she got Narex to pick up a six-pack of two-litre bottles of soda -- a fancy-ass brand Ishtar didn’t get her hands on often.

At the frozen section, Ishtar tossed in some posh ice cream, topping it off with some Italian ice and a few packs of mixed fruit. By that point, some things were precariously placed on top of the pile of food in the small trolley, and Ishtar winced as she considered that this was probably going to cost a shit-ton of money. Still, she and Narex went through the checkout section and she passed over the credit chit while avoiding seeing how much everything actually cost.

Ishtar grabbed a couple of the bags of shopping, taking care to leave her dominant hand free. That, naturally, left Narex to grab the remainder of the items, piling them into his arms with Ishtar only just hearing a muttered comment of complaint before they moved on.

With arms full and with items that would defrost pretty quickly in the consistent temperature the Citadel was kept in, Ishtar plotted a faster, more direct route back to the apartment. Ishtar’s eyes did slide towards Moda Café, a coffee shop she’d gotten well acquainted with on her visits to the Citadel; after a quick check of their items, Ishtar realised that they had more than enough time to quickly pass in and grab a drink to go.

“Not a word of this to anyone, Narex,” Ishtar said in a harsh whisper as she and Narex made their way to the counter. Ishtar had visited so often that she knew her own order off by heart, and occasionally she was recognised beyond being _the_ Commander Shepard and instead of as the person who ordered...

“Large hot chocolate, full-fat milk. Whipped cream, chocolate shavings, chocolate bar.” Ishtar didn’t let her wince show, and once the person behind the counter plugged her order into the terminal, Ishtar turned to Narex. “You want anything?”

Narex shook his head; Ishtar grabbed a two-pack of cookies and added those to the order. She moved over to a corner of the room as her order was prepped, trying to look for all the world that standing around with a krogan and carrying a ton of shopping with them.

Eventually, Ishtar’s order was ready; she grabbed it on the way out, balancing the cup with the bags she’d been carrying. She couldn’t walk, carry the bags, and start drinking with any semblance of coordination, so she saved it for when they’d be back in the apartment.

 

[ - ]

 

Allison looked up as the sound of something heavy sounded, seeing Ishtar and Narex at the front door. Narex exchanged looks with Karag and the two swapped places, Narex moving to stand by the door and Karag moving to help with the shopping bags.

Ishtar practically flung the ones she had been carrying onto the kitchen table, somehow keeping a hold of the coffee cup she had in her hand. With the bags on the table, she breathed a sigh, took off the lid, and took a deep sip of her drink, wiping white froth away with a quick flick.

“Got you some stuff,” Ishtar said, placing her drink carefully on the side and moving to unpack the food. Allison frowned as she looked over the amount Ishtar had brought back with her.

“Where’d you get that?”

“Supermarket, where else.” Ishtar busied herself with the bags, almost ignoring Karag as he busied himself helping to put items away in their expected places. The only exception was when he grabbed a box of goldfish crackers; Ishtar grabbed it back, levelled Karag with a glare, and moved over to Allison, settling the box down on the table in front of her.

“Ya hungry?” Ishtar asked after she’d returned to the kitchen and finished unpacking all the other items. Freezer and chilled foods went into their respective sections and Ishtar stepped back with a rather pleased looking expression. She turned to look over at Allison, who had ditched her game and had been watching Ishtar working.

“I’m not --”

Ishtar snorted. “Come on, you don’t expect me to believe that. You biotics run through food like anything, and I’ve only see you eat once.” Ishtar trailed her gaze down to Allison’s stomach. “ _And_ you’re pregnant. Doesn’t that fuck with how much you need to eat as well?”

“I’ve been eating,” Allison said, levelling a slight glare at Ishtar.

“Uh-huh, sure. I’ll believe that when I actually see you eat something.” Ishtar started up her omni-tool, bathing her in a faint orange light as she tapped through. “I got a shit-ton of stuff, _some_ of it you’ll like.” The glare that Ishtar gave Allison was of a similar intensity to the one she’d just received. A moment later, Ishtar sighed in frustration and shut down her omni-tool. “not a Spectre any more, don’t have high priority extranet access.”

Ishtar turned back to the kitchen, all but shooing Karag out of the area and busying herself with the cupboards. Allison shook her head and returned to the game on her omni-tool as Ishtar seemed hell-bent on causing as much noise and chaos in the kitchen as she could.

 

[ - ]

 

Twenty minutes later, just as Allison was on the verge of a victor with her turian-led troops, Ishtar strode across the living room area.

“Your dinner is served, Ms Spectre,” Ishtar said, with lots of pomp and fuss and a very long and drawn-out bow. Allison stayed still, raising an eyebrow at Ishtar when she finally stood back up. “Though it might be more like breakfast for you if it’s your first meal of the day.” When Allison still refused to move, Ishtar sighed. “Come on. Don’t make me drag you to the table like a kid. It’s done and it’s hot right now; keep being stubborn and you’ll be eating cold mush.”

Allison shut down her omni-tool and stood up warily, cautiously following behind Ishtar. The small table, realistically suitable for only two people despite the two reasonably-sized bedrooms in the place, had been laid out. Cutlery on one side of a plate that held steak, a pile of veg, and some mashed potato; empty glasses with a bottle of soda between them. Ishtar folded herself into the far seat, letting Allison take the nearside one.

“Hey, Karag, Narex!” Ishtar called out; the two krogan looked up at the sound echoing across the apartment. “There’s a shit-ton left over if you wanna have some!” Ishtar grinned as she turned back to Allison; the grin disappeared when Ishtar saw a completely untouched plate of food, Allison sitting with her hands in her lap.

With a sigh, Ishtar picked up her fork and speared some of the veg off Allison’s plate. With a slight flourish, she ate them and gave a ‘see?’ shrug.

“C’mon, you really think I’d do something to you?” Silence. “Even if I did, it wouldn’t affect the krogan and they’d kill me for it.” More silence. “Urgh, fine.”

Ishtar cut out a random piece of steak and took a dollop of mashed potato, following the exact same flourish she’d done before. “Again, why would I wait until now to try and kill you? Makes no sense.”

Ishtar poured herself some soda; Allison declined and got herself some water instead. Eventually, Allison picked up her own cutlery and began to eat, inclining her head and letting out what sounded like a surprised “huh”.

“Been looking out for myself for a long time. You think I didn’t pick up a few life skills along the way?” Ishtar cut off a large chunk of her steak and ate it. “Just don’t believe what Garrus says, he’ll make it sound like I burn the apartment down on a regular basis. Him _and_ Grunt, although unless something’s charcoaled to a crisp Grunt’ll eat it.” Ishtar frowned over at Allison’s plate and reached her fork over to tap the pile of veg. “C’mon, I didn’t go to all this effort to have half my food ignored. Veggies are good for you.”

“You certainly don’t seem to believe that for yourself.” Allison gave a pointed look at the much smaller pile Ishtar had, largely supplemented by a more generous portion of mash.

“Biotic with a biotic pregnancy, right? You need more food that I do.” Ishtar settled back into her seat, glancing over at the two krogan. As expected, while they had taken the plates she’d left out, they’d moved to a section of the living room and had sat on the floor, tearing into the steak with their teeth, spearing the veg with their claws, and only deigning to use a fork for the fluffy mash. They chatted between themselves, although Ishtar did note that they send more than the occasional glance towards the two of them.

“C’mon,” Ishtar said, tapping the side of Allison’s plate again. With an eye-roll that would make any five year old jealous, Allison relented and began eating some of the veg. Ishtar grinned and continued eating her own meal.

When they were almost done, the front door cycled open. Allison immediately glanced over, seeing Garrus and Kharrium walking into the apartment. That visual check done, she turned back to her meal.

Ishtar’s check-over was a little more thorough. Check for any dents and scratches in his armour, any new wounds that weren’t there previously. Check the status of Kharrium -- any signs of damage or ‘injuries’ on their body, any changes in the walk cycle or expected behaviour to indicate a hacking attempt. Nothing. All clear and good.

“Hey, Garrus. You need something to eat? I tried to grab some dextro-food but the supermarket didn’t have much.”

“I’m fine,” Garrus said. Kharrium split off and turned back to the front door while Garrus moved towards the kitchen area. “I got some food out.” Ishtar turned back to her food with a quick nod; Allison frowned.

“So, wait. You don’t believe me when I say I _have_ been eating, but all it takes from Garrus is a few words?”

“I trust him,” Ishtar said, finishing off her meal. She poured herself another half-glass of soda and offered the bottle to Allison. With some reluctance, she took the bottle and poured herself some. Ishtar took the bottle back, looked at Garrus, and said in a stage whisper, “she thinks I was trying to poison her.”

Garrus snorted, mandibles moving in amusement. “Did you try and explain that you’ve had plenty of chances if you so wanted to do so?”

“Uh, _yeah_.” Ishtar turned back to Allison, still grinning. “No offense, but you sleep like a fucking log. Bet drills didn’t even wake you up.”

“Comes with living your whole life on a ship,” Allison said, turning her attention to her mashed potatoes. She absently poked the pile with her fork. “Noisy places. You either learn to shut out all the excess noise or...well, you don’t.” Allison finished up her food and pushed her plate closer towards the centre of the table. She drained her glass, stood up, and was halfway out of the kitchen before she paused and looked back at Ishtar and Garrus.

“Er, thanks. For the food, I mean.”

 

[ - ]

 

Ishtar sighed as Garrus ran a talon through the strands of her hair. He was sitting up against the backboard, Ishtar straddling his hips, alternating between talking and musing and touching the other.

Garrus ran a talon through Ishtar’s hair a couple more times before he tucked it behind her ear, letting his hand fall down to her hip instead. “I managed a good search of the Citadel today.”

“Anything useful?” Ishtar moved a hand up and traced it down along Garrus’ neck before splaying her hand on his chest. She let it rest there for a few seconds before running a nail along gently. She sighed again, this time from annoyance than being content.

“Nothing. I updated the map on my omni-tool and looked at some new businesses, but everyone’s happy to go on with their own lives.”

“Anything from the geth?” Ishtar asked innocently. Garrus’ eyes narrowed and she moved her hands away, holding them up in surrender. “I meant about stuff like other universes. Liara’s not exactly been forthcoming on her information so far.”

“Sweetheart, I’m not going to go up to the geth and ask them something like that. Nor am I going to try, as subtly as I can, to ask them about the end of the Reaper war.”

Ishtar sighed again. She placed her hands back on Garrus’ chest and let her head fall forwards. “I just--we’re _stuck_ here, Garrus, until someone gets a bright idea. If the Reapers were still around, I’d comment that we’d be more likely to see through to their next cycle before we had a chance of making it home to our own universe.”

Ishtar shifted and rolled off Garrus, twisting so that she stopped on her side, facing him, head on the pillow. “I miss Grunt and Tali. I miss Ash and Vega. Seeing the geth around? I miss Legion, too. For me, it’s only been a couple of weeks since I saw him sacrifice himself to give all geth consciousness.

“Fuck, you know what? I miss _everything_. I have no idea if anyone’s safe, if time is running differently back home. For all I know, the Reapers could be slaughtering everyone. They could have finished their harvest, their cycle, gone back into dark space and when we return we’re the _only_ ones still around.” Ishtar closed her eyes, squeezing back tears that were threatening to spill. “Here, I own nothing. Allison’s been all nice and shit, offering to buy me a shit-ton of stuff? I’m just waiting for her to call in the favour because I _owe_ her and there is nothing I can do to change that.”

Ishtar got off the bed, ignoring the small squeak of protest it gave. Self-admitted, Allison would sleep through anything. Ishtar began to pace across the length of the small room, contrary to all her thoughts told her. She was in a small room with her lover, both decent fighters. Four guards were in the apartment, and Allison herself had biotics.

“And you’re worried about keeping up your Commander Shepard persona in front of everyone. Including me.”

Ishtar turned to look at Garrus, slightly shocked. Her shoulders sagged. “Yeah. It’s...it’s _me_ , you know? This is the face that came through Akuze, the face that saved the Citadel, the face that is massing forces to fight the Reapers. Only...fuck. It means _nothing_ here.”

Garrus shifted on the bed, lightly patting the mattress. “Sleep. Rest up, and we’ll deal with this tomorrow. Or,” Garrus grinned over at her. “If you’re having difficulty taking your mind off things, I can help.”

With a small grin, Ishtar moved to curl up under the sheets. Garrus moved to his side, wrapping his arms carefully around Ishtar as she snuggled down next to him.

 

[ - ]

 

The next few days followed in a similar fashion -- the krogans and geth rotated who was guarding which section, Ishtar overhearing comments on their guard duty schedule. She suspected the geth did the same via their own private comms network. Alenko had arranged the bodyguards well -- geth unable to be hacked for any length of time, and if they were taken out of commission even temporarily, the krogan would take over. Given what she’d heard, there was practically no chance a krogan would try and take a job against Allison.

Garrus took regular trips out of the apartment, usually accompanied by one of the geth and almost always gone for a few hours at least. Every time he returned he inputted new data into his omni-tool, answering Allison’s questions with either noncommittal answers or doing his best to deflect to other areas of discussion. Each night, he shared the information he found with Ishtar, putting together a map of the Citadel that was more focused on the people than the architecture. Garrus managed to map out patterns and routines, but nothing that indicated anything out of the ordinary. If it hadn’t been for the Cerberus attacks, he wouldn’t have thought anything had been amiss.

“So there’s nothing?” Ishtar said quietly, looking over the map on Garrus’ omni-tool. The layout close to the apartment was intricately detailed, becoming less so the further out it went. Garrus had marked points of interest on the map, but more relating to places to visit than to any anomalies.

Garrus nodded, flicking over to another screen. “No unusual activity since the attack on the Strip. C-Sec is still investigating the cause of it, talking to ex-Cerberus employees to see if they have any insight into the attack, but no one’s yet come forward with any concrete evidence.”

“So...what do they think it is?”

“Same as everyone, I’d suspect. A rogue Cerberus cell, motives so far unknown.”

The next morning was more of the same -- Garrus leaving not long after Ishtar managed to pull herself out of bed, neither Narex nor Karag commenting about it. Metis and Kharrium stayed in the background, almost indiscernible from the wall coverings if they weren’t geth constructs.

However, by the time Ishtar had roused and pulled herself out of bed, and scrabbled around in the cupboards for something resembling breakfast, Allison had still yet to show her face. She frowned to herself as she munched on cereal, directing Metis to look over the coffee machine in between bites -- she wasn’t worried or paranoid about the whole thing, not at all. Coffee machines just liked to explode around her.

When Metis returned a statement saying that there was no danger involved, Ishtar made herself a cup of coffee and alternated sips with the cereal. When finished with both, she left the empty bowl, mug, and cutlery in the sink and sidled over to Garrus where he was sitting on the sofa.

“Think I should go and check?” Ishtar kept her voice low and concealed. She glanced over at the krogan and geth, but none seemed to be interested in their conversation.

“I’m sure she’s fine.” Garrus made no move to look at Ishtar, instead focused on his omni-tool and continuing to make up a map of the local area. “If she’s even remotely like you she’s probably bored and annoyed at being locked up.”

Ishtar ‘hmm’ed at that, glancing across the room to Allison’s bedroom door. The lock indicator was green, and aside from Miss Cheery and Perky at 3 in the Goddamn Morning _not_ being up and awake before Ishtar, everything looked normal.

Without a further word Ishtar stood up from the sofa and walked over to the bedroom door. She waited a split second as the door hissed open, slapping a cheery grin on her face and all but bounding in.

“Rise and shine, Allison! It’s too nice a day to spend it cooped up in your bedroom when you have a whole _apartment_ to be cooped up in!”

Ishtar had to squint to be able to look around the room; the lighting was on but at its bare minimum, only just illuminating the outline of the various things in the apartment. Two bedside tables, one medium sized chest of drawers, and a reasonably-sized double bed. Soft music was also playing in the room, set to concentrate sound in the middle of the room -- where the bed was -- than to fill the whole room with sound. Ishtar saw a dark lump in the middle of the bed, sighing softly to herself and rolling her eyes.

“Come on, Allison. I’m serious.” Ishtar huffed and put her hands on her hips, trying her best to actually seem as serious as she sounded. When the lump didn’t move nor verbalise anything, Ishtar moved to turn the lights up. As she did so, the music faded out, replaced by the quick-fire syllables of a salarian.

“--celebration for the third anniversary of the end of the Reaper Wars is still to go ahead despite security concerns--”

Ishtar ignored the rest of what the announcer was saying and moved closer to the bed. Allison was on her stomach, sheets tangled up around her waist. Her arms were tucked underneath her pillow and she was facing away from both the door and Ishtar. Steady breathing indicated that Allison was still alive, but Ishtar wasn’t sure if she was simply deeply asleep or just ignoring her.

Ishtar stood still for a moment, mentally debating. Annoyance told her to just turn around and head back out and leave Allison to mope, but a small part of her whispered to stay there, that Allison might need someone to talk to. Ishtar quashed the urge to squash that small part of her and took a small step towards the bed.

“Allison? You okay? Baby’s not causing you any harm?” When Allison didn’t answer, Ishtar shifted onto her left foot, hands unconsciously clenching into fists. Ishtar took another step towards the bed, the mattress sagging slightly when she sat on the edge of it. She let out a breath, let her fists relax, and moved a hand across to touch Allison. She hesitated before her hand reached its target, debating.

_What the fuck am I supposed to do?_

Before Ishtar could decide, the salarian had finished up the news report, a new song starting up. At her position on the bed, she could hear everything a lot clearer. The new song was a slow, melodic, almost mournful piano piece with no words.

Allison’s head jerked up and she looked around, half-panicked and half-frantic. She barely glanced over at Ishtar before her focus was on a small contraption in the wall.

“Radio. Skip to next station.” Allison’s voice was calm, but her face anything but. As the song filtered out and was replaced by a more upbeat, rock-based song, Allison sighed and placed her head back on the bed.

“The fuck was that about?”

Allison turned her attention back to Ishtar, almost seeming to notice her for the first time. Her eyes flicked down to note Ishtar sitting on the bed; while her eyebrows moved down to a frown, she didn’t say anything about Ishtar’s placement.

“What song was that? Must have been something pretty major to make you react like that?” Ishtar had moved both of her hands to her knees, keeping focus to ensure they stayed flat and didn’t clench up into fists again. Allison pressed her lips together and stayed silent. “I can look it up, you know.” Ishtar loaded up her omni-tool, the orange glow seeming excessively bright even with the lights in the room turned on. Ishtar was in the middle of scanning through the list of Citadel radio stations when Allison sighed and began talking.

“Back in ‘83, the fight against Sovereign and Saren. Did you save the Council?”

“Uh, _yeah_. Fucking saved their asses, and they _owe me_ for it. Fuckers refused to believe the Reaper threat until it was right there. No wonder I hung up on their sanctimonious asses more than once.”

“You _hung up_ on them?” Allison’s face was wide with a mix of shock and panic. “You--damn.”

“What?” Ishtar shut down her omni-tool and folded her arms across her chest. “Are you saying they never pissed you off?”

“Pissed me off? Yeah, of course. Sparatus especially with his ‘ah yes, ‘reapers’. We have dismissed such claims’ aspect.” Allison mimicked the turian councilor to a scary degree. “Did you _ever_ have them on your side?”

“Sure. They gave me my Spectredom back in ‘85, and I got apologies from the turian Councilor after the coup.” Ishtar shifted on the bed. “So, the deal with that song?”

“Well, I saved the Council as well. After I woke, in ‘85, I saw an ad for _Citadel_ , the movie they’d made about the events.” Ishtar nodded and Allison continued. “All the events with Sovereign being a _geth_ ship, anyway.” Allison settled back down onto the bed, placing her head on the pillow facing Ishtar. “Well, after the Reaper War, people knew the truth about Sovereign. Couldn’t exactly cover it up any more.

“ _Citadel_ was remade. Well, ‘remade’ is probably a false term. They made a trilogy of movies, redoing _Citadel_ with the actual aspect of Sovereign being a Reaper ship, the initial wave of the Reaper attacks.”

Ishtar nodded. “Yeah, very nice. Where’s all this going?”

Allison smiled wanly. “That trilogy weren’t the only movies made of the whole events. When news -- official news -- broke of the relationship between myself and Kaidan, the extranet went into a frenzy. There were rumors and speculation about what had been going on between us, how long it had been going on.

“Between that and half the stuff that happened on the Citadel, most people suspected the beginning of the Reaper War, at least. Some people swooned over it, the forbidden romance blossoming and coming into being during what could have been our remaining time. One, a salarian named Arorla Leus, decided to make a movie. Compressed the events of the Reaper War, focused entirely on our relationship.

“That song you heard, that I had to skip over? That was the iconic piece for the movie, _The Sentinel and the Vanguard._ I think you can guess who it referred to.”

Ishtar snorted. “You really moping over a song from a movie based on your love life? Hell, if it was me and Garrus they made a movie of, I’d be snarking the hell out of that shit. Can you imagine? Garrus being all suave and well spoken, and they’d probably tone down my swearing _a lot_. No use for a mostly family-friendly film with a shit-ton of swearing, right?”

Ishtar moved away, tugging at the sheets on the bed. Allison grabbed the top of them, pressing them close to her chest and sending a strong glare over at Ishtar.

“The hell are you doing?”

“ _I_ am sick of you moping around!” Ishtar tugged again on the sheets, succeeding a little and pulling away. Allison strengthened her grip on the sheets at that, and no matter how hard Ishtar tried, she couldn’t tug them away any more. With an exaggerated, exasperated sigh, she threw her hands up in the air. “Fine, you win the tug of war. Probably using cheaty biotics anyway, cheat.” Ishtar turned away, pressing a finger to the top of her nose. She took three breaths before turning back around.

“You,” Ishtar pointed a finger at Allison, getting another glare in return. “Are getting your ass out of bed, getting dressed well enough that you won’t embarass yourself heading out of the apartment, eating some food so that you don’t keel over and I have to haul you to Huerta.”

“Why?”

“Because we are heading out. Don’t care where, we’re just getting out of this place for a few hours.”


	7. Chapter Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was a hideous pain to finish, not least because I veered into territory I hadn't planned for and needed to do a lot of planning and research. Last planned update for a while as I'm going to be away from my main computer for almost a month.

Chapter Seven:

“What a mission, huh? Spectredom looks a hell of a lot more interesting in the vids and news.”

Kaidan glanced over at Nelis, giving the relatively young asari a small smile. She was checking over her sniper rifle, meticulously looking down the scope and weighting the weapon in her hands. Kaidan was checking over his own loadout, a scattering of his own personal choice mods on the weapons bench. He’d loaded in a stability dampner for his assault rifle as first priority, and was in the process of fitting a precision scope on top of that. The hold of the unmarked shuttle they were in was crowded enough at best, but with a makeshift weapons bench squeezed in it barely gave them enough room to move around in. Armour had to be shoved into a tiny overhead compartment -- thankfully not for too long as they’d be able to retrieve it barely half an hour into the journey.

“So, how’s the home life with Shepard?” Nelis asked, placing both her weapons down on the bench. She’d already finished with the mods for her Mantis and Predator, and had been taking time ensuring everything was as she liked it. “Things going okay?”

“Yeah, all fine.” Kaidan finished with the scope on his Valkyrie and moved onto his Paladin, checking down the sight. When he looked back at Nelis, she had a very human expression -- hands on hips and if asari had eyebrows one of hers would have been raised.

“Alenko, I’ve known you for over eighteen months. If I can’t read how you’re feeling from that amount of time, I’m shit as a Spectre. I know you’re lying.”

Kaidan snorted, partly in amusement but mostly in annoyance. He didn’t move his gaze from checking down the scope as he minutely adjusted his aim. Neither did he move to speak until he’d run through all of his mental checks and his Predator was settled back down onto the weapons bench.

“It’s--” Kaidan sighed. “Cerberus.”

“Well, _yeah_.” Nelis moved a few items over and pulled herself to perch precariously on the small table surface. “We wouldn’t be here with this brief if it wasn’t them.”

Kaidan relaxed his hands, fighting the urge to pick up one of his weapons again just for want of something to do. Instead, he forced them to relax by his sides, hoping to paint a picture of calm.

“We think Cerberus is targeting Allison.” Kaidan kept his gaze focused on the middle distance, ignoring the bevy of emotions flickering over Nelis’ face. “Multiple attacks on the Citadel and if Allison hasn’t been at ground zero, she’s been pretty damned close.”

Nelis was quiet for a few moments before speaking. “Well, shit. How’s Shepard coping with all this?”

“Not well.” Kaidan gave up his pretense and grabbed his Valkyrie and began adjusting the scope, practically taking it off before putting it back on. “The pregnancy’s been stressing her out as it is, weekly check-ups to make sure nothing’s gone wrong. To be told that Cerberus is likely targeting her and she needs to be kept under heavy guard...”

“Well, they have good reason to hate her.” At Kaidan’s surprised look, Nelis continued. “I didn’t mean it like that! But think, she got a whole ship full of Cerberus people to follow her through the Omega 4 Relay, stole the _Normandy_ back, told The Illusive Man to piss off, and when you got attacked vowed to fuck him over well and proper.”

Kaidan’s lips twitched into a smile. “I think you’ve been watching the vids a little too much.”

Nelis grinned as she slipped off the table and picked up her Mantis. “What can I say, I like a good action vid with a bit of romance.” She checked over her weapon, snapping it to the holster on her back. “Shepard really that bad?”

Kaidan nodded. “Not that she’s showing it. We, ah, have some friends over, not seen them in a long time, don’t know what’s happened beyond the news vids, and Allison’s keeping up a facade in front of them.”

“Hnn. Let me guess, if she wasn’t pregnant and had her own way, she would have been halfway across the galaxy, hunting down these Cerberus bastards.” Nelis formed a biotic corona across her hands. “Zap, across the battlefield. Zap, to an enemy. Zap, across to a second.”

Kaidan smiled. “Yeah, probably.” He moved to pick up his own weapons, snapping them to their respective holsters. Once done, he moved across the cockpit, careful not to move in too far. Like the hold, the cockpit was abnormally small and could just fit in the controls and a single pilot with any kind of comfort.

“Status?” Kaidan said, grabbing onto the ceiling handrail out of habit than necessity. The pilot stayed silent for a few moments, flicking across varying screens and settings.

“Still got a couple a hours, through merc territory too,” she said, finally glancing up at Kaidan. “Unmarked shuttle like ya requested, but no guarantee we won’t find a gun on our rear end.”

“Noted. We’ll be on guard.”

 

[ - ]

 

Kaidan nursed the tumbler in front of him carefully. Cheap single malt human whiskey, bought for pretense than any consideration towards actually drinking it, and the harsh taste was making sure it gave him a reason to drink slowly. He lifted the glass to his lips, taking another slow sip and avoiding grimacing as he tasted the alcohol.

Hunkered down in the corner of the bar, away from any lights that would illuminate him in enough detail for someone to identify him, Kaidan had an excellent position to watch the majority of the bar. He could see a few mercs in identifying armour, mostly humans with a sprinkling of batarians, guns easily visible as a threat to anyone who might consider attacking (though given their inebriated state, some would chance it). The majority of people were human, not many in any kind of amour, most likely people ending a shift at their chosen place of work. Almost all of them were in some kind of hazy, inebriated state, adding another layer of defense against recognition.

Kaidan shifted further back into the shadows as someone ghosted by, keeping his face hidden as best as he could. His armour, a dark blue that was almost bordering on black, had allowed him to blend a little more into the shadows. Being the second ever human Spectre, married to the first, his face had become more than a little recognisable; it worked great in situations when a threat needed to be made, but when the situation called for a little more discretion it meant he had to take more of a back seat.

Idly, he ran a hand over the clasps on his vambrace. He’d made sure to take good care of his armour in the five months he’d had it -- with the price tag he anticipated it had, it _needed_ to be well-kept. Allison had given it to him on the sly, leaving it in a place she knew he’d find it. Expertly made, his two immediate thoughts had been how she’d managed to procure it, and how expensive it had been. Neither comments made it further than his mind, and he’d noticed a flicker of appreciation the first time he’d suited up in it without a complaint.

A skittering sound nearby caught his attention, and he looked up just in time to see Nelis walking past, her grey armour reflecting the light a little better than his own. An OSD slid to a halt just beside his elbow, and after downing the rest of his drink Kaidan got up, picked up the OSD, and left the bar.

 

[ - ]

 

Kaidan rubbed a hand across his eyes before re-reading through the information on the terminal screen. The information Nelis had managed to obtain was of an eccentric mix, and although he’d made some effort to drag through and sort the information into unusable and potentially usable sections, he was still uncovering messy information. Someone talking about a post-work drink, another discussing child care with their partner, a third sending themselves a reminder for grocery shopping, _bread, cereals, fruit_. One thing that had seemed promising initially was data points of peoples’ journeys. Most pointed through recurring paths -- the same route from home to work, and back again. Occasional deviations to other places -- bars, shops, schools.

Kaidan flicked up another window, putting it beside the one he had been scanning through. None of the people Nelis had managed to get visuals on were known Cerberus associates, but the close proximity to an old, abandoned base had put this planet high on the list of places to search.

The door cycled open, and Kaidan barely glanced up long enough to see Nelis stride in. As she walked, she undid the gauntlet on her left hand, carelessly tossing it into the room. He turned his attention back to the terminal, ignoring the movement and slight clanking sounds as more sections of armour joined the gauntlet on the floor. Without comment, Nelis slipped into the bathroom area.

Kaidan leaned back, letting out a heavy sigh and covering his eyes with his hands. After a moment he moved them down his face. Staring up at the ceiling, he considered his options. With no one reported to have been near the base in months, the sensible route would have been to scratch this planet off the list. A sceptical route had him thinking that reports could be altered and documented, with credits easing the difficulty of doing so.

Credits could also open up memories for some people, though that still presented problems of its own. He needed some kind of lead, some association with Cerberus. Dropping credits to anyone would be no use.

Kaidan looked back at the terminal. After a moment’s deliberation, he started composing an email.

_Shadow Broker,_

_Met through a person known to both of us. Investigating urgent mission, lack of information. Appreciate data points, information, vids. People associating with Cerberus in location..._

 

[ - ]

 

A few days and a couple of relay jumps away, the information seemed to be panning out. Nelis had hidden herself away -- whether that was hiding in an alleyway or shadows cast by the buildings, setting up a sniper’s nest, or already in the building where he was scheduled to meet with the contact..

Kaidan kept his gaze focused on the nearby bar, moving across to the threshold as if he was a local, a regular, someone who every member of staff knew by name and knew what he was most likely to order. He’d been given some tidbits of information, just enough to set him on the right path. Anything more than that small information exchange might have raised suspicions further down the line.

Kaidan looked around the bar, studying it and splitting it down into segments as he moved further in. Analysing the best cover and strongholds, determining the routes an enemy combatant might take to specific areas. The lights were low and a constant hum permeated every section of the room.

He settled into a seat at the counter, motioning to the bartender for a drink. Over the din Kaidan managed to get through an order of something, though he was _pretty_ sure the human bartender wouldn’t do something as absurd as serve him a dextro-based drink.

Moments later, the bartender placed a drink in front of Kaidan and he took a tentative sip. The salarian next to him beckoned the bartender over and after a brief discussion a couple of shots appeared in front of the salarian. In two quick gulps they were both gone, joining the line of empty, upturned glasses that the salarian was beginning to accumulate. The salarian kept on blinking rapidly, casting the briefest of looks around before turning back to study the countertop in intricate detail.

After one last shot, the salarian paid up, staggering out across the bar and almost stumbled into a crowded table. The salarian picked himself up after a stuttered, slightly slurred apology. Kaidan waited a reasonable length of time before he downed his drink, paid up, and made his way out of the bar.

 

[ - ]

 

Kaidan had to keep his pace slow, ensuring he was distant enough from the salarian to not make it obvious, but not distant enough that he lost sight. The streets were practically empty, the time being that odd interval where people seemed settled where they were -- home, visiting friends, at a local restaurant or bar -- and were not inclined to move for a good length of time. Dusk had finally settled in the short time Kaidan had been in the bar, streetlights starting to flick on sporadically.

The salarian kept on muttering meaningless things to himself, the syllables only barely reaching Kaidan's ears. With the swaying and stumbling, combined with the number of shots Kaidan had anticipated the salarian had drank, Kaidan had been starting to wonder just how the salarian was still standing upright.

The salarian lurched to the left abruptly; Kaidan hurried up a little, moving down the side alley barely a moment after the salarian. With the high buildings on either side and no illumination, the alley was shrouded in shadows.

The salarian wasn't so far drunk that he hadn't noticed the seemingly one other person out on the streets duck down the alley behind him; Kaidan sprung forwards, grabbed the salarian and slammed him back towards one of the alley walls.

Even intoxicated, the salarian still struggled to put up a fight, attempting to push away from Kaidan and put some distance between them. Between the strength difference and the fact that the salarian had no purchase on anything, the struggle was easily one-sided.

"I don't--please, I have no credits, I--take what you want, I don't want trouble--"

Kaidan leaned in, pressing a forearm against the salarian's neck. After a few seconds, the babbling died down and Kaidan released his hold. The salarian relaxed before attempting to twist and dive around Kaidan; Kaidan was quicker, grabbing the salarian in a similar hold to before and pinning him back up against the wall. The slight change in position, the shift back towards the better-lit streets, both gave the salarian a better opportunity to look at Kaidan.

And, as the salarian’s eyes widened in recognition, Kaidan mentally thanked whoever that him being so well-known was, occasionally, a good thing.

“Please, I didn’t do--I didn’t know! It was my business partner! They pressured me into it, threatened my business partner! I didn’t--”

“I want details. Now.”

Five minutes later, the salarian was no worse for wear and Kaidan began checking and sorting through the information on his omni-tool.

 

[ - ]

 

It had been another day’s trip but they had made progress. The information the salarian had given was not only accurate but timely, with the base still seemingly occupied. IFF signals were showing a dozen or so guards spaced at reasonable intervals on the closer half of the base, and had pinged another dozen or so inside the base itself before distance and shielding negated the scans. The base itself was on a tiny chunk of a planet, human-friendly atmosphere but erratic weather and climates had prevented anything more than a cursory look-over and note down by exploration groups.

“Got anything?” Kaidan asked Nelis, keeping his voice low. They’d scooped out a small area, hidden away in temperate rainforest that surrounded the base. Evidence of recent construct was evident in the uneven ground and frequent tree stumps still visible.

“No identifying marks on their armour,” Nelis said, not taking her gaze away from the sight on her sniper rifle. She moved slightly, panning the rifle across, following the path of one specific guard. When he disappeared into one of the main gates on the base, Nelis finally turned her attention back to Kaidan. “Certainly well guarded. They’re not doing anything innocuously human, like...” Nelis paused, thinking.

“Baking cookies?”

“Yeah, let’s go with that.” Nelis pulled her sniper rifle back, snapping off the sight. She pulled up her omni-tool which already had a brief sketch of the local area. “Unmarked armour shows no allegiance. This could be Cerberus, could be someone else.” Nelis panned the schematic around. “Guards patrolling at regular intervals, and the building itself is registered to a Ms Avelin Ferrer. No such person turned up on any extranet searches. _Don’t_ look smug,” she added, noting the twitch of Kaidan’s lips. “You won’t forget that I now owe you three beers on the Citadel anyway.”

Nelis shut down her omni-tool and glanced down at her sniper rifle. She picked it up in one swift movement, clipping it onto the armour on her back and moved back towards the small clearing, peering out.

“Still an information-gathering mission, Nelis,” Kaidan said. He’d loaded up his own omni-tool, data streaming across as he rapidly typed. “We can’t attack until we know more information.”

Nelis scoffed at that. “We’re Spectres. We could just go in and attack the site. No one would stop us.”

“A bullet would.” Kaidan closed down his omni-tool and crouched down next to Nelis. He looked out beside her for a moment before standing back up. “Come on. We need to collate this information anyway.”

 

[ - ]

 

Nelis looked at the model, elbow resting on one hand and the other clenched and resting against her mouth. Kaidan was hunched over, both hands on the table and staring straight at it as if he could unlock all its secrets just by intent alone.

Kaidan moved a hand, sweeping it across the model and rotating it a bit. As he did, the information that had been floating around the model changed.

“Locked down tight,” he muttered. Nelis didn’t answer, just continued staring at the model. Red lights moved through at a steady and regular pace, mimicking the movements of the guards they’d seen. Patrols seemed to be exceptionally regular, the only vulnerability seemingly in the switchover. Two guard changes every four hours, reducing the number of active guards outside in half. That was only for a few scant minutes, meaning any assault using that method would have to be both quick and effective.

“How’s your tactical cloak?” Kaidan asked; Nelis looked up and met eyes with him.

“Average.” Nelis turned back to look at the model. She ran through calculations, configurations in her mind. Preferring to keep at a distance, she didn’t take much time and effort to upgrading her cloak, but for something like this...”I could upgrade it.”

Kaidan nodded. “Then that’s our plan. Frontal assault, you clearing the initial wave with your cloak and biotics. I’ll cover your six.”

With one quick sweep, the model on the table disappeared.

 

[ - ]

 

Kaidan scanned through the opening while Nelis looked down the scope of her sniper rifle again, looking over the guards and their positioning.

“I don’t like this,” Kaidan muttered; Nelis paid no attention, keeping her gaze fixed down the scope. “We were only here the previous day; whatever they were planning, they can’t have initiated it this quickly.”

“They can if it was already in motion.” Nelis moved away from the sniper rifle, gesturing for Kaidan to have a look down. He did after a moment’s hesitation, scanning across the front of the base and seeing exactly what Nelis had.

Kaidan sighed and pulled away from the rifle. “All right. Objectives still haven’t changed. You know what to do.”

Nelis gave him an exceedingly brief nod. She grabbed her Predator and in a blink she’d disappeared from view.

“On target. Radio silence.”

Kaidan looked through the gap as Nelis moved across. Cloaked, he had no definitive idea of where she was, but he could plot a good estimate of her path. The guards were barely visible, not even a third of the number they’d seen the preceeding day. Kaidan’s IFF was only registering a brief scattering of people inside the building. The only positive was that it allowed Nelis to dash across the open expanse, dodge into the entranceway, and slip into the building.

“ _Shit._ _Place is ransacked. Nothing here. Heading forwards.”_

A few seconds later, a blaring alarm wailed through the comm. channel.

“Status.”

“ _Tripped an alarm. I – urgh._ ” The alarm sounded one more time before being cut off mid-screech. “ _There is_ nothing _here, Alenko. All terminals haphazard, data pads scattered everywhere. Looks like they knew we were coming and got the hell out of here._ ” A few blips sounded across the comms. “ _Attempting a splice into the systems...failed. No data immediately available._ ”

Kaidan frowned; his HUD had gone from showing a scattering of points thanks to his IFF to showing none at all. The guards that had been present on the edges of the building, and the small number of people inside, had all disappeared.

“ _Any thoughts, Alenko?_ ”

“Can’t rule out it being a set-up. Everyone’s disappeared. I’ll head over, see if I can extract any data from the terminals.”

Nelis snorted. “ _Yeah, well, good luck._ ”

 

[ - ]

 

_Shuttle route: Panov-Illium._

_Total travel time: 7 hours, 78 minutes (Council Time)_

_Current travel time: 0 hours, 15 minutes (Council Time)_

_Relay jumps: 3 (3 secondary)_

_Account authorization: Systems Alliance Major Kaidan Michael Alenko (human), Council Spectre_

_Intended recipient: Shadow Broker_

_Encryption method: Edited Halass version 0.4757, one-time use key_

Shadow Broker,

 

Payment for information authorised and enclosed. All current information gathered and decrypted also attached. More information incoming as received. Expect payment in kind.

 

Major Alenko.

 

[ - ]

 

Eva Gladden absently tapped on her desk, looking out the window across the expansive scene. A city almost to rival those on Illium before the war, the building she was in the tallest in the wide area by a good number of storeys. The star of the system had begun to set an hour ago, and was now casting a gloomy light through gaps in the shorter buildings. The lights in the office had been turned to full brightness the instant the star had begun to set, and would be kept that way until the very last person had left. Almost all of the buildings surrounding were newly built, a shine and polish to them that had yet to be diminished by general life.

Eva moved her hand from the desk, cupping her chin gently. She closed her eyes and inclined her head slightly; the view was dazzling, but some things needed more careful consideration than its beauty allowed.

The door behind Eva hissed lightly; she didn’t flinch, didn’t move, didn’t even open her eyes to cast a cursory glance over at who had moved into the room. No one would have been able to get into the building without her notice, let alone all the way up to her office. She had too much security, too many people dedicated enough to die for her. No previous mistakes would be repeated.

“Ma’am. I have a report back from base alpha sigma nine. They’re...it’s not good news.”

Eva opened her eyes and turned to glance at the person bringing the report. Fresh-faced and barely employed for six months, he had shown great potential and been very quickly picked up as a specialist. His murky brown eyes did widen in fear when Eva looked at him, and she heard a short relieved sigh when she turned back to the window.

“Alpha sigma nine had Spectres sniffing around. We had to terminate.”

“Spectres?” Eva still faced the window. She ran through the list of possible candidates, and none were pleasant.

“Yes, ma’am. Two. An asari and a human male.”

Eva grimaced, glad that the illumination outside wasn’t dim enough to turn the window into a weak mirror. “Confirmed human male?”

“Yes, ma’am. Surveillance easily showed them. I have some stills—“

Eva waved her hand. “Not necessary. There are still only two human Spectres; so long as you can confirm one was human, I know who it was.” Eva casually turned around, fully facing the messenger. “What happened?”

“As per your instructions, the moment we were notified that we had someone investigating the base, we ordered an evacuation and wipe. We left a small group to watch the base, also evacuated via emergency measures when the Spectres returned. They reported their presence.”

Eva briefly closed her eyes, thinking. She opened them back up after a few seconds, focusing her blue-eyed gaze on the messenger. “If Alenko is out chasing us down, this bodes well for us. I hadn’t expected he would have been the first to be called up to investigate – possible he pleaded his case.”

Eva turned back around to the window, crossing the distance in a few short strides. She held her hands behind her back, glancing down into the bustling city. Rapid transit cars were dotted around, their lights mere pinpricks at the distance.

“If we can keep Alenko occupied, chasing mist in the Terminus, that leaves Shepard alone on the Citadel. They perceive it as safe, a haven; everyone who lives there is always on alert, C-Sec has their highest number of officers in centuries.

“Feed through false information to Alenko. We have our sources, you know who to communicate with.”

“Of course. Only...”

Eva turned around. “I don’t like being second-guessed. Speak.”

“Shepard isn’t alone on the Citadel. Even if Alenko was still there, she has guards, watchers. She’s effectively under house arrest at the current time, and we know she has some bodyguards with her.”

Eva nodded, a rare acknowledgement of a dissenting opinion. “Shepard is indeed under house arrest. However, we still know her schedule, her routine. She’s not kept locked up for the remainder of her life. Besides,” Eva let a smile appear on her face. “Shepard makes herself approachable to fans and the general public. There is always a way.”


	8. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

 

"Come _on_! what the fuck's the big problem, anyway?" Ishtar glared up at Narex, eyes narrowed. Allison had perched herself in the centre of the sofa, leaning back and a resigned look on her face. Karag was watching the event from his corner of the room, and Metis and Kharrium were flanking the main door of the apartment -- no one wanted to miss the spectacle, it seemed.

Narex stared down at Ishtar; she folded her arms across her chest, one finger tapping along the elbow bend. She made a step forwards, putting herself deep in Narex's personal space. She turned her head, focusing on Narex with her left eye only. A low rumble sounded but otherwise Narex was still and silent until Ishtar took a step back.

"Shepard is only to leave the apartment for a pre-arranged and pre-agreed meeting," Narex said.

"And who the fuck decided that was a good idea?"

"Guess," Allison said, drawing attention to her for a split second.

"Alenko. Again." Ishtar turned back to Narex. "Well, I'm _pre-arranging_ for Allison and me to head out in an hour, and I'm expecting a _pre-agreement_ that we'll be able to do so."

"No." Narex moved closer to Ishtar, staring down at her more intently, eyes narrowed. Ishtar jerked her chin out and matched his gaze.

"No headbutting!" Allison got to her feet, the majority of her glare directed at Narex. Ishtar let out a small snort and a second later the sound of skulls cracking echoed around the small apartment. Ishtar turned around with a satisfied smile on her face to see Allison sitting back down on the sofa, face in hand.

“Oh, were you talking to me?” Ishtar said sweetly as she sauntered over to sit on the sofa. "So why the fuck are you being held prisoner in a rented apartment? Alenko really wants you to relive the months you spent in Vancouver?" Ishtar moved her legs, planting her feet down on the coffee table with a solid thump; one arm ended up flung over the armrest and the other tucked up behind her head. In contrast, Allison had her feet on the floor, legs tucked neatly against the sofa, with both hands in her lap.

"Safety and security. Much easier to guard me if I'm keeping to a strict schedule than if I'm coming and going as I please."

"Bullshit. You know it. Alenko just doesn't want you wandering off around the Citadel when he's not here."

"I wonder why." Allison looked over at Ishtar, a scornful look on her face. "The last time I went 'wandering off' around the Citadel, I ran into someone who grabbed me. I'd say Kaidan's concern is more than slightly grounded in reality."

Ishtar let out a low growl. "Do you always follow Alenko's lead? Sit there like an obedient puppy whenever he orders you to do something?"

A flicker of pain crossed Allison's face, but it was gone in a split second. “No. He’s right; I need to make sure I’m safe. Just because the war ended doesn’t mean everything’s all smiles and sunshine and nothing bad ever happens.”

“Yeah, sure.” Ishtar got up with a sigh and stepped back towards Narex again. “C’mon, at the least we need to get some more fucking food. I forget how much shit biotics and krogan can eat.”

Narex looked at Ishtar with his right eye before looking up at Allison. Allison gave a noncommittal shrug and Narex turned his attention back to Ishtar.

“Fine. You and I will go shopping.”

Ishtar looked over her shoulder at Allison, seeing that the latter was already engrossed in a program on her omni-tool, evidently expecting no invitation.

“C’mon, seriously,” Ishtar muttered to herself. “These guys are fucking paranoid.”

 

[ - ]

 

Allison practically leapt up to help put the food away when Narex and Ishtar returned, grabbing random things and putting them away in approximations of where they were supposed to go.

“I’ll make dinner,” she said as she eyed up a box of pasta, reading over the back of the packaging.

“Suits me,” Ishtar said distractedly as she made an attempt to fit the assorted veg into the tiny fridge. “Surprised a spacer kid like you can cook. Didn’t you have all your meals prepared and made for you?”

“I wasn’t on ships _all_ my life. I learned a few skills.”

“Like what? How to order in?”

To Ishtar’s surprise, Allison didn’t snipe back, instead focusing her attention on gathering the ingredients together. Working on a recipe that was only in her head, by the time Ishtar and Narex had finished unpacking the food and putting it away they’d been shooed out. Even when Ishtar attempted to sidle up and see what Allison was making, she still got shooed back to the living room area to wait. With little better to do, Ishtar perched on the armrest of the sofa, keeping an eye on the kitchen and the ever-increasing mess Allison was making. Just as Ishtar was about to ask if Allison was actually making _food_ , Allison finally stepped back from the stove, looking reasonably pleased with herself.

“Food’s ready,” she announced. Ishtar got up from the sofa and saw Allison walking to the two-seater table with a plate of food already in hand. On the side counter had been left a large plate of pasta and a small collection of individual plates. Ishtar dodged around the two krogan and quickly snagged a plate and rather more than a third of the food on the serving platter. No one made a comment about that, and she slid into the seat opposite Allison and started wolfing down the food.

“Garrus said he’d be out for a meal. Again,” Ishtar said through a mouthful of food before swallowing. She wondered for a split second where he was finding the credits to fund his habit when something tasted _wrong_. There was a slightly gritty, almost chalky texture to the pasta. Ishtar took her time with the next forkful, digging through in a manner not to seem conspicuous. Pasta, cream sauce, chicken, bell peppers, red onion. Nothing in there to cause such a strange texture, not even if Allison had made the sauce wrong.

Ishtar’s eyes began to feel heavy; that put her on full alert. She placed her plate on the table and pushed her seat away; the scraping of chair legs against the floor caught Allison’s attention, and she looked up at Ishtar with a puzzled look.

“I...I’m pretty tired, actually. Think I’m gonna have a quick nap.”

“Sure,” Allison said, returning her attention to her own food. Ishtar paused a moment, debating on her options. Alerting Allison would scupper whoever’s plans it was, but keeping silent and vigilant would reveal who was drugging them.

 _Better to wait and catch the person responsible_.

Ishtar made it over to the sofa, her eyelids still feeling incredibly heavy. She collapsed down, not making any pretense towards elegance. She listened out for krogan grumbles, Allison’s murmurings, and after a short while all went silent. Ishtar heard the hiss of the door opening, waited to a count of ten, and dragged herself up and awake to investigate.

 

[ - ]

 

_Kaidan’s going to kill you. And the krogan. And the geth. And Ishtar, above all else. You are going to be dead multiple times over._

An exaggeration, to be sure, and Allison knew that what she was doing was stupid, risky, and immensely immature. She brought her omni-tool up and did a quick scan of the code running; unlikely to keep the geth busy for too long, but long enough for her to be able to slip out the door.

Allison paused by the sofa, affording herself a quick glance at Ishtar. Sprawled on her back, one arm thrown over her eyes, settled breathing. Satisfied that Ishtar was asleep, Allison quickly laced up her boots and slipped out the front door. She was moving fast by the time it cycled closed behind her, and she did a double-check of systems. Omni-tool running on standby, pistol neatly tucked into a holster behind a jacket, biotics...

A blue corona flickered over Allison’s right hand, disappearing almost as soon as it appeared. Biotics primed and ready for use. She was glad that she’d kept her amp in rather than remove it -- the adjustment would be more than she wanted to deal with.

Armed and ready to go.

 

[ - ]

 

Ishtar’s mind was still clouded with sleep, systems still fighting back against whatever sedative had been in the food, but almost a decade of being special ops had pounded into her the resources needed for any situation. She grabbed her boots, double-checking that the knife was still present, and slipped them on. Hurriedly zipping them up, she paused only to grab her jacket before heading out. The door hissed open and she dashed through, taking three quick steps before the door closed.

It was late in the day cycle, though Zakera Ward never showed it. People were milling around, Ishtar looking every which way to find a familiar looking face in the crowd. They were deep in residential territory, a small mercy being that anyone wandering around would be someone who lived there, but it didn’t make the number of people any less.

After some time scanning around, Ishtar finally spotted Allison. Or, rather, spotted people staring at Allison, doing double takes, and occasionally stopping to take a quick snapshot with their omni-tool. Allison seemed not to notice, continuing on her usual pace; no one approached her as she moved along, and after they’d got their snapshots the general public continued on with what they had been doing prior.

Ishtar kept back, staying at least four people away from Allison at all times. She paused when Allison stopped by a few people, exchanging a few words before moving on once again. Ishtar jammed her hands in her jacket pocket and kept alert of her surroundings, practically one eye on Allison and the other on everything else. Belatedly, she wished she’d manage to wheedle a gun to carry along, but the knife and skills she’d honed on the streets would suffice.

With the number of people out and about on the Upper Ward, barely anyone took notice of Ishtar; following at a discreet distance, she was able to follow Allison’s path and not seem like an obsessive stalker. Not that Allison was heading anywhere specific; she moved around at a reasonable pace but wavered to anything that caught her interest -- shop fronts, a few more people, market stalls. Allison never bought anything, just seemed to be content with looking at her options.

After a short time, Allison headed away from the commercial area and into a quieter area -- from the looks of it, more residential areas smaller and a bit more rundown than the temporary one they had been shoved into. Small balconies and off-white paint with the occasional dab of graffiti, a keeper at the far end fiddling with a terminal.

Ishtar sped up, her shorter but quicker stride matching Allison’s longer but more languid one.

“Alenko’s gonna kill you when he finds out.”

To her credit, Allison didn’t flinch or even look surprised. Either she’d been able to mask her reactions or she’d been able to spot Ishtar following her. Given that Allison’s upbringing didn’t involve necessary deceit, Ishtar would bet on the latter even if it did mean Ishtar’s ego would take a blow.

“Who did that to the food? You?”

Allison didn’t answer, choosing instead to fold her arms across her chest.

“That’s a yes. Pretty ballsy to drug the krogan, by the way. What did you put in the pasta?”

“Sleeping tablets. Prescription biotic strength ones. I’m surprised they didn’t knock you out for longer.”

Ishtar shrugged. “I was a street kid. You learn to detect these kind of things. Get slipped a sedative and wake up halfway across the continent? Yeah, that’s not exactly a good thing, though I suppose you wouldn’t learn that. Head in the stars and all that.”

Allison scowled. “I grew up on space stations, sure. Doesn’t make me ignorant.”

“Of general things? No. Of what I went through? Hell yes.” Ishtar paused to glance around. Still walking through a residential area, still practically empty. “So, how’d you get past the geth? Metis and Kharrium don’t eat.”

Allison loaded up her omni-tool, showing a small section of scrolling code. Ishtar got barely a glance at it before it disappeared. “Hacked them. This is a program Tali gave me back when I was working with Cerberus.”

“Huh. I didn’t think the geth could be hacked. Not after...” Ishtar’s jaw tightened for a second.

“They can, for short periods of time. Long enough for me to be able to slip out undetected.”

Allison shut down her omni-tool and began to stride away; Ishtar took a few seconds to catch up, matching her pace to Allison’s quickly. “So, you got a specific destination in mind?”

Allison shrugged. “Just needed some time away. That apartment can get pretty cramped after a while. Besides, you saw how Narex reacted when you tried getting me to head out.”

“ _Why_ are they so adamant about keeping you locked up? A gilded cage is still a fucked-up prison.”

“I’m an important person. A figurehead. Shit, I’m probably edging into legendary status now. I’d expect that’s more than enough to keep me safe.”

Ishtar tilted her head, glaring at Allison. “That’s bull and you know it. I don’t believe you.”

“It’s the truth.”

“The truth that you know, or the truth you’re trying to feed me? You’re a shit liar, Allison.” Allison quickened her pace again, leaving Ishtar to jog to keep up. “Come on!” Ishtar shouted out. “The hell are you hiding from?”

“Ishtar, _shut up_.”

“What, you worried that _all these people_ are gonna hear us?” Out of spite, Ishtar raised her voice higher as they walked through further apartments. A few people were scattered around, but all seemed disinterested in the bubbling argument. “I’m not gonna shut up about this, so you’d better answer quickly!”

Allison sped up more, almost starting into a job herself. Ishtar sped up, eyes narrowed and focused in on Allison only.

“Allison, _what the fuck is going on here_.”

Allison scuffed the floor as she stopped, whirling around and almost headbutting Ishtar as the latter skidded to a halt. Allison’s few inches on Ishtar gave her an imposing look, but Ishtar kept her eyes focused on Allison and head turned upwards. No way was one starbrain going to intimidate her.

“You have _no right_ to demand anything of me.”

“Really? Try me.” Ishtar bared her teeth. “Garrus and I need all the information we can get if we have a chance of getting back home.”

“All information you can get doesn’t involve my personal life.” Allison broke off eye contact from Ishtar and began to turn around.

“I need to know what’s going on. Hey!” Ishtar reached out for Allison’s arm but missed; a few steps later she grabbed Allison’s elbow, forcing her to turn around and be face to face with Ishtar once again.

“Tell me what the fuck is going on.” Ishtar’s voice had gone cold and icy, her eyes narrowed and jaw clenched.

Allison wrenched her arm out of Ishtar’s grip, once more leaning over her. Allison’s eyes narrowed as well. “Fine. You wanna know?” Allison leaned in closer, forcing Ishtar to take a step back.

_Can’t hit someone who’s pregnant. Don’t hit someone who’s pregnant. Can’t--_

Allison took a step forwards, forcing Ishtar back again. Ishtar gritted her teeth, keeping her breathing slow, but a split-second later, just as Allison was moving to speak, Ishtar snapped.

In an instant, Ishtar had clenched her fist and delivered a solid uppercut to Allison’s jaw. Allison’s head snapped back, eyes wide with surprise and shock, and she took a few steps back. A hand went to her jaw as her head returned to the level, Allison sending a strong glare across to Ishtar.

“I don’t make a habit of punching pregnant people, but _you_ are making it _really. Fucking. Difficult!”_ Ishtar shot out a hand, noting the slight flinch from Allison. “Come on. We need to head back.”

Ishtar dropped her hand after a moment when it became clear Allison would do nothing but look at it, but thankfully when Ishtar turned around and started to head back, Allison followed.

 

[ - ]

 

 

Ishtar played the diplomat and smoothed things over with Narex, Karag, Metis, and Kharrium when they arrived back at the apartment. Metis had been met outside the apartment block with a brief, “Shepard-Commander” and escorted them back; just in time too, as both Narex and Karag had been about ready to strap weapons on and search the Citadel by any means necessary. Even if it did mean reducing the new construction to rubble and searching through the brickwork.

Ishtar had immediately herded Allison to the sofa the moment they’d walked into the apartment; to her credit, she’d sat down and watched Ishtar play mom, but didn’t even look the slightest bit remorseful about the whole situation. Not the whole drugging everyone to sneak out -- now that Ishtar grudgingly admitted to herself that she sorta admired Allison for having the balls to do such a thing. No, the fact that she’d done it to people whose sole purpose (well, not hers) was to keep Allison safe should have been something to feel bad about.

“We need a girl talk,” Ishtar said finally after everything was almost smoothed over. Metis and Kharrium had taken the information without further note -- another odd organic thing to file away and converse with other geth about. Karag had mellowed out, almost but not quite accepting Allison’s actions, while Narex was alternating looks between Ishtar and Allison.

“Girl talk?” Narex said, focusing his entire attention on Ishtar.

“Yes.” Ishtar jutted out her chin and matched Narex’s glare. “Girl talk. All stuff that men and agender people probably don’t want to hear.” Ishtar began to make a shooting motion, only increasing the glare Narex got from her. “Did you want me to headbutt you again? ‘Cause I’m telling you, my head feels fine after the last one.”

Narex took that as a challenge, a deep rumbling chuckle sounding across the room. “You don’t have the quad to try.”

Another crack sounded and Ishtar looked at Narex with a smirk. The glare in his eyes had disappeared, changed to something that was a distant third cousin five times removed of respect.

“Hnn.” Narex looked over at Karag and pointed the other krogan over. Karag stomped over the five steps between them, and Ishtar was slightly thankful to see that he’d stowed his weapon away in the time she’d been talking to Karag. “We’re staying here.”

“Nuh-uh,” Ishtar said. “You need to go out the apartment. Don’t care how far away, just get outside.” She smiled sweetly. “I could just keep headbutting you until you agree.”

“You’ve got a quad on you, human.”

With further grumbles Narex lumbered out of the apartment, Karag close behind. Metis and Kharrium were also shooed out, leaving just Ishtar and Allison in the living room. Not missing a beat, Ishtar strode over to Allison, grabbed her hand, and pulled her to her feet. By the time Allison had the mind to calculate what was happening, Ishtar had already moved her across the apartment and into her bedroom, shoved Allison down onto the bed, and was busy sealing the lock on the door.

“I’ve known you long enough to recognise that your tech skills are piss-poor,” Ishtar said as the final piece of code slotted into place, the lock flicking from green to an angry red in a split-second. “Which means you can’t get out of this room until I say.”

Ishtar closed down her omni-tool, turned around and noted that Allison was still on the bed, one leg tucked under her, the other extended out slightly, both hands on the mattress steadying her but also ready to push up if necessary. Ishtar grabbed a chair from the side of the room, getting perverse enjoyment as it scraped across the length of floor, Allison looking distinctly uncomfortable at the sound. Ishtar dumped the chair a short distance from the bed and straddled it, leaning forwards on the backrest and staring at Allison.

“Talk. Now.”

With a half-sigh, half-growl, Allison looked away from Ishtar, staring down at a random spot in the room. After a minute, Ishtar began to tap her short nails on the back of the chair; when Allison turned back to glare, Ishtar just shrugged.

“I’m patient. Comes with standing back and analysing a situation rather than dashing in.”

Allison tore her gaze away once again, this time staring down at the bed. Ishtar was seconds away from resuming her scratching the back of the chair when Allison finally spoke.

“Kaidan and I...we’ve lost a lot of time to things beyond our control. When the war was over, I woke up in the Citadel, bleeding and broken. I couldn’t remember much of what happened, and everything past --” Allison stopped, taking a deep breath. “Half of it’s a blank. I expected to die there, had gone into the final assault thinking there was no chance I’d make it back alive.” Allison took a breath. “Cerberus’ rebuild affected me, the effects of the Reaper War even more. When I woke up, no one wanted to give me the news, the full reports. The Reapers were dead, yes, but there was the massive destruction. My left hand was shattered, I’d had burns across my body where my armour had melted into it, my lower left leg was gone.”

“Looks perfectly fine now,” Ishtar said, making it very obvious as she looked down Allison’s body, firmly focusing on an organic left leg.

“Clone tissue replacement.” Allison scowled. “I was ‘lucky’ not to have PTSD, but I still do have nightmares and anxiety. This here, the Citadel?” Allison waved an arm around before placing it back. “Now more than ever, the Citadel is a symbol of hope and unity. I live here, everything’s normal. Outside, things are _fucked up._ Deep in the Terminus there are fragments fighting for control. Aria still has Omega, the quarians and geth hold out on Rannoch, but outside of those small pockets no one travels. At least not without some kind of armed guard or paid mercs. It’s...and because of me, _again_ , Kaidan’s out in danger.”

Ishtar snorted. “That it? You’re seriously whining about that? ‘Oh no, I got injured in a big fucking war and now everyone’s trying to keep me safe! Woe is me, I have to stay in the best place in the galaxy! I have people who care about me, with bodyguards who would never turn against me, a husband who loves me, and _everyone_ fighting to keep me safe! It’s such a difficult life to live!’” Ishtar snapped into a snarl. “You’re fucking _selfish_. You’re seriously complaining about the fact you have a shit-ton of people who love you and want to keep you safe? Do you know how many people out there are trying to keep you happy, and you’re sitting here in a pity party? Suck it up and learn to be a fucking adult, Miss Priss. God knows you’ll need to be with your kid on the way.”

It was Allison’s turn to glare. “Get out. _Now_.”

Ishtar shrugged; in a few seconds her omni-tool was active and the lock back to green. “I’ve said my piece.” Ishtar stood up and moved to walk out of the room, but paused partway across. She turned back to see Allison still sitting on the bed. “Just keep in mind what I said.”

 

[ - ]

 

Ishtar rose uncharacteristically early (for her) the next morning, walking into the kitchen area covering a yawn with one hand and the other running through her hair to control it. Through half-lidded eyes, she immediately snapped from confusion to being determined to figure out what was going on in front of her.

Allison already had a jacket on and a small messenger bag slung across her torso, boots in one hand. She talked quietly to Karag who mostly nodded and occasionally responded in an equally quiet voice. Karag himself was suited up in newly-polished armour with a Claymore gripped tightly in his hands. Allison finished speaking and turned away from Ishtar; Karag turned the other way and saw Ishtar, his mouth splitting into a grin.

“Okay, I’ve been patient, but what the fuck is going on?” Ishtar may have raised her voice too loudly, as almost everyone jumped at the first few syllables. Only Karag, who was also the only one of the three that wasn't a biotic, stayed still.

“Hospital appointment,” Allison said as her biotic sheen disappeared. She turned her attention back to doing up her shoes, tapping the toes of her left foot against the ground a couple of times.

“For the, y’know, baby?” Ishtar said, waving a hand in the direction of Allison’s stomach. Allison raised an eyebrow, but nodded. “I’m coming with you,” Ishtar added.

Allison’s other eyebrow raised up as well, and Karag began to mutter an argument. Before he could turn to Ishtar and state his argument against, she’d stepped up to him with the same determined look she’d given Narex.

“I’m female. A girl. Same as Allison. Any female stuff, I get to go with her. Besides, as brilliant a bodyguard you are, I don’t think you’d be able to fit yourself, Allison, _and_ the doctor in the appointment room.”

“She’s probably right,” Allison said with a sigh. She ran a hand through her hair and turned to look at Karag. “A hospital room isn’t likely to be that dangerous—”

“Better to be safe.” Ishtar gestured at Allison’s stomach again. “That kid’s got a whole lot of enemies, right? And it’s not even born yet.”

“She,” Allison said, a small smile on her face. “Yeah, you’re right. Ishtar’ll be with us.”

 

[ - ]

 

“Allison Shepard?”

The waiting room was almost mercifully empty, but even those who hadn’t stared at them when they walked in whipped their heads around. As soon as they linked the name with the appearance, the whispers and stares and pointing began. One even loaded up their omni-tool, but Ishtar was quicker. A short burst fried the other person’s omni-tool.

Allison moved across the waiting room briskly, looking like she’d travelled the same path numerous times before. Ishtar kept half a step behind, and Karag was left to patrol the waiting room.

“Good to see you again, Shepard,” the asari nurse said, offering her hand for Allison to shake. Allison did so, but with a thin-lipped smile on her face.

“You too, Irlisa.”

Irlisa moved into the small examination room, taking the seat beside the terminal. Ishtar moved into the spare seat and Allison moved over to the examination table.

“You are?” Irlisa said, looking down her nose at Ishtar.

“Allison’s sister.”

Irlisa gave Ishtar a look. “There are no comments on our records about that.”

Allison let out a loud sigh and made an event of rolling her eyes. “This is my _cousin_ , not my sister. She likes saying that though; sister of the legendary Commander Shepard is a lot better than cousin.” Allison gave Ishtar a strong look. “Cousin on my dad’s side. Turns out his sister had a kid years ago and I didn’t know until a couple of years ago.”

Irlisa looked like she didn’t believe them, but made no comment.

“Okay. Normally you’d be scheduled in for an ultrasound today, but given you had one the week before there’s little logic in doing another one so soon.” Irlisa typed in a few commands to her terminal. A few seconds later, a display appeared in the middle of the room. Irlisa let the ultrasound play for a few seconds before pausing it and standing up.

“Looks pretty freaky. Almost like a baby hanar.”

Allison covered a snort with a cough; Irlisa didn’t notice or pay attention. “Everything looks okay to me.” She beckoned Allison over and the two stood side by side, looking at the screen. “All on an expected development schedule, and...” Irlisa pointed out a few tiny dots on the screen. “Doctor Salant made some notes on the presence of biotic nodules, and that’s what we’re seeing here.” She pointed out some more. “At this level of development, we’re certainly anticipating your baby will be a biotic from birth.”

“Another paragraph in the medical paper,” Allison muttered to herself. Irlisa turned and returned to the terminal, and Allison returned to the examination table.

“Would you like to see your baby? We have the visualisations all set up.”

A brief look of panic crossed Allison’s face. “No, I...I’d want to wait until Kaidan gets back.” She looked over at Ishtar and gave her a half-shrug. “Sorry. Husband and father is a higher priority on seeing the baby. Cousin is a bit down there.”

Irlisa took that comment with barely a nod, turning her attention fully to Allison and effectively blocking Ishtar out. Irlisa tapped a few commands on the terminal and brought up a summary of Allison’s medical examinations.

“How has your nausea been?”

“Fading away. Still present on occasion but nowhere near as bad as it has been.”

“Still on your anti-nausea medication?”

“Yes.”

Irlisa made a few notes. “Vitamins? Anti-depressants?”

That earned Allison a look from Ishtar. “Yes, I’ve been keeping on my schedule for those.”

“Great.” Irlisa turned away from the terminal and towards the scales pushed away into the corner of the room. Without comment, Allison moved over and stepped on the scales, waiting while Irlisa looked at the readout. After she returned to the terminal and inputted the numbers in, Irlisa didn’t look too happy.

“You’re teetering on the lower range of acceptable weight gain for pregnancy. You’re just out of the first trimester and you should be aiming to gain about half a kilo per week. According to this, you’ve gained around a hundred and fifty grams.” Irlisa made another note. “At this stage, it’s not a major problem, but it is something we will need to be very careful on.”

Irlisa continued on with regular checks, looking happier at Allison’s heart rate and blood pressure. Those numbers were noted down without a negative or cautionary comment.

“Now, how have you been feeling emotionally? Stable moods, any periods of depressive episodes?”

“No, it’s all been fine and stable.”

Ishtar snorted, drawing the attention of the two other people in the room. “C’mon, seriously? What about the other day? I had to come and drag you out of bed.” Allison glared at Ishtar and made a movement for her to be silent. Ishtar ignored her. “You’re not going to bullshit me, and you’re not going to pass off that you’ve been okay when you so obviously have _not_.”

Allison let out a sigh and waited a moment before turning back to Irlisa. “It was not a depressive episode. I’ve experienced enough of them to know what it was. I was unhappy, not depressed.”

“Still,” Irlisa said, turning her full attention to Allison. She leaned forwards, elbow on knees. “It is something you and your family will need to keep a close watch on. Being unhappy isn’t dangerous, but if you’re able to slip into a depressive episode while on medication will mean that we will have to adjust your dosage.” Irlisa briefly glanced over at the terminal. “From my notes, you have been keeping up with your therapy sessions which is excellent, and your next session is in two days.”

Allison nodded at that before shooting a look at Ishtar. Ishtar looked innocent, shrugged her shoulders, and stayed silent. For about three seconds.

“Listen,” Ishtar said, leaning forwards. Irlisa glanced over at Allison. “I, uh, kinda punched her in the face yesterday. Could that have hurt the kid?”

Irlisa looked stunned, not quite sure if Ishtar was being serious or not. She had a look where she seemed to be trying to decide if she needed to file a report.

Allison plastered a smile on her face and placed a hand on Ishtar’s wrist. “A bit of a disagreement. My cousin likes to use her fists a little too quickly. You know what family’s like, right?”

Irlisa smiled at Allison uncertainly. “Unless you were hit in the abdomen, nothing would have happened. A punch to the face wouldn’t have done any damage.” Irlisa moved to tidy up, and Allison took that as her cue to leave. Ishtar moved a step ahead. Just before they left, Irlisa grabbed Allison’s arm to halt her. Ishtar paused as well.

“I would just like to remind you that C-Sec is available to help anyone and everyone. This includes war hero Spectres. Please don’t be afraid to ask for support if you need it.”

Irlisa gave Ishtar a pointed look and a smile at Allison. “A refill for your pregnancy medication has been sent to the pharmacy; please pick it up before you leave.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I absoltely detest having to do this, but the last month has been utter chaos for me. I'm now right in the middle of buying a house (getting a mortgage, finding a solicitor, all that fun stuff) which has sucked away any desire to do anything outside of work. I'm afraid I'm having to put all my works on hiatus until further notice -- I'll be working on them in the background, but no guaranteed updates anytime in the near future. This applies to all my current WIPs, and I apologise for having to do this.


End file.
